Diplomat: Belarus' policy of social justice is an example for many nations

Belarus' policy of social justice is an example for many countries of the world, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations Office at Geneva Larisa Belskaya said in a new episode of the project “After the Fact: Lukashenko's Decisions” on BelTA's YouTube channel.

According to the diplomat, what is happening now in international organizations in relation to Belarus, in particular in the International Labor Organization (ILO), is part of one big political process - a hybrid war against Belarus that was launched by Western countries following the events of 2020. According to Larisa Belskaya, a group of countries persists with their attempts to discredit Belarus. International events were not held in person in 2020-2021 due to the pandemic and its aftermath. Yet, once they resumed their usual mode of operation in 2022, Western countries started coordinating their actions more actively.

“And we got this situation in the ILO [the adoption of a resolution on Belarus in June 2023],” said Larisa Belskaya.

According to her, this resolution is incorrectly interpreted as the imposition of sanctions against Belarus by the ILO. In fact, the ILO has no right to impose sanctions at all. The ILO resolution authorized the application of Article 33 of the ILO Charter in relation to our country, which says that the International Labor Conference can recommend member states and other nations to reconsider relations with Belarus. This is meant to force them to comply with certain recommendations of the ILO Commission of Inquiry that looked into the situation with trade unions in Belarus. By the way, this commission was established back in 2004, after that the ILO has repeatedly pointed to progress in the implementation of the recommendations of this commission; the ILO representatives have visited Belarus several times. But after 2020, they decided to forget about any progress, swept all the agreements reached under the carpet and launched a different scenario.

“Moreover, as the ILO experts admit, the scenario was set in motion at the suggestion of a group of Western states. In other words, it was not done by the ILO supervisory bodies, as is usually the case,” Larisa Belskaya noted.

She drew attention to the fact that the ILO did not impose sanctions against Belarus, but recommended that the states reconsider relations with our country. “The initiators [of the resolution] expect many states to join Western sanctions against Belarus,” the diplomat said.

According to her, one of the unpublicized draft resolutions that went around the ILO secretariat and got into the hands of the Belarusian side in February 2023 contained a very vague wording: to revise relations with Belarus in the economic, cultural, sports, humanitarian spheres. At a meeting with the ILO top official, Larisa Belskaya asked what all this meant, and after that, this odious wording was removed, she noted.

Larisa Belskaya is convinced that the sponsors of the ILO resolution should have no illusions about their success. The document was supported by the governments of 66 countries, of which 46 were Western countries and 20 were Western satellites that chose to follow suit for one reason or another. At the same time, 15 countries voted against, about 40 abstained and several dozen did not show up for the vote.

"This result was noted even by ILO experts. Because they can hardly recall such a high level of non-support for the resolution of the ILO Conference over the past few decades," said Larisa Belskaya. "We are very hopeful that the states that did not support the resolution will not follow the policy that Western countries are trying to impose through the ILO mechanisms."

In the wake of the resolution, the ILO will cease technical cooperation with Belarus and assistance to our country. But since 2020, such assistance has not been provided anyway, there have been no significant projects. "So they will stop what they actually stopped doing a while ago," the diplomat said.

In her opinion, following this resolution the ILO secretariat might distance itself from the tripartite council on improving social and labor laws which was established in Belarus with the assistance of the ILO. "In my opinion, this indicates the bias of the secretariat itself, which is forced to fall in line with the policies of Western countries, donors and not work with the country and its largest trade union organization," the permanent representative said.

In addition, the resolution suggests that the ILO will not invite official representatives of Belarus to international meetings, events, symposia. But in the context of the current Western sanctions, it was already difficult to do it.

"If we talk about how we will defend the rights of Belarusian workers and protect the good name of Belarus in the international arena, then the task for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic missions, the Labor and Social Security Ministry, our trade unions, employers is very simple - to convey the truth about workers' situation in Belarus. We have platforms where we continue to do this," Larisa Belskaya emphasized.

"Belarus has a progressive experience unattainable not only for developing countries, but also for developed countries in guaranteeing employment, helping the most vulnerable people who have lost their jobs, who need free retraining or helping women who take care of a disabled child under 3," she added. “The majority of countries supported us at the ILO Conference by not voting in favor of the resolution. For many countries, Belarus serves as a kind of benchmark of social justice. It's true. We will use every opportunity to convey the truth about Belarus, we will reveal the lies with which they are flooding us."