Euro-maidan two years ago: protestor holds a sign (in Russian): 'Putin, if you love something - set it free!'Meeting in Brussels on Monday 15 February 2016, foreign ministers of European Union member states adopted the EU’s strategy for engagement at the United Nations. However, when studying the document, one wonders if the strategy isn’t actually more to do with a lack of EU engagement on human rights at the UN.
Belarus
Belarus, for example, remains what it has always been: a country in which anybody can at any given time be arrested or released according to rules set out in presidential decrees, rather than the rule of law. What does the EU Council have to say about this? The answer is nothing more than an empty avowal that, “the EU will continue to follow closely the human rights situation.” Even the Council’s conclusions specific to Belarus (also issued on 15 February), which lifted the sanctions whilst expressing concern over the human rights situation, do not state that the EU will maintain Belarus’s place on the agenda of the UN.
The EU should have used this opportunity to clarify its strategy. Belarus is the only European country that is not a member of the Council of Europe, and the continued use of the death penalty will prevent any rapprochement in this regard. Belarus must therefore be monitored by the UN.
