MINSK. March 1 (Interfax) - Belarus said that the current UN Human Rights Council had political and selective approach to its activities.
"There are lots of politics and selectiveness in the council's work, there is a serious imbalance in considering human rights in the field, in particular depending on countries' mandates," Belarusian Permanent Representative in the UN branch in Geneva, Mikhail Khvostov, said at a session of the UN Human Rights Council.
"Special procedures have got lost in the human rights rhetoric and many of them associate the fight for political power with human rights activities," Khvostov was quoted as saying at the session on the website of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.
"The role of the state in upholding human rights is substituted by the role of philanthropic establishments funded from outside," Khvostov said. "These are dangerous tendencies, which lead to the destruction of social systems and structures and social ties in traditional societies. We can't agree with this, the guarantee of human rights is to be aimed at peaceful development of society," he said.
"The Council is lacking information on human rights issues in the countries considering themselves "established democracies," the Belarusian representative said. "There are gaps in the work of the High Commissioner, department, human rights procedures, and non-governmental organizations," he said. "We're ready to assist in improving the situation, in particular to report high-profile human rights violations in certain countries," Khvostov said.
Khvostov said that the Council has not become the body it was designed to in accordance with the Resolution 60/251 of the UN General Assembly. "Flexibility, impartiality, objectivity, and non-selectiveness haven't become its driving force. We're seeing a growing polarization of opinions on topical and country initiatives," he said.