Belarusian FM accuses West of using sanctions to incite unrest

Western countries use unilateral sanctions to pressure governments they oppose and provoke social unrest, Belarusian Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhenkov said at the International Conference on Humanitarian Action, Remedy and Responsibility in a unilateral sanctions environment held in Geneva, TASS reports.

“Unfortunately, despite the clearly acute nature of the problem of the negative impact of sanctions on the realisation of human rights, the initiators of restrictive measures prefer to ignore it and continue to use the sanctions whip as a tool of their foreign policy, claiming the legality and justification of such measures,” he stated.

Speaking via video message, Ryzhenkov raised a fundamental human rights question about whether it is acceptable to apply measures that even indirectly worsen the living conditions of civilians. “After all, the countries initiating unilateral coercive measures openly state that they deliberately impose them to negatively affect the lives of citizens in the targeted states. In this way, the West hopes to provoke social unrest. This, in turn, is supposed to lead to a change of legitimately elected governments that, for political reasons, are deemed unacceptable by certain Western countries,” he said.

The minister noted that around 40 countries with a combined population of 2.5 billion people are currently subject to what he described as illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the West. He expressed particular concern over cases where restrictions hinder the supply of essential medicines, including those needed to treat chronic and rare diseases. “The harm caused by such unilateral measures is obvious. But it is unclear why this is not obvious to the United Nations. Why does the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights not point out to Western countries the negative consequences of sanctions for the human rights system and the organisation’s credibility in addressing such issues? The question is rhetorical,” Ryzhenkov said.

He added that behind declarations about protecting values, human rights, and democracy often lies a more pragmatic logic of power, benefit, and economic calculation. “Sanctions pressure also aims to push undesirable states backwards — to restrain their technological development, deprive them of access to investment, and disrupt production chains. At the same time, citizens of the initiating countries also suffer from the short-sighted policies of their own political leadership. But which politicians of the collective West truly think about the fate of their citizens?” he asked.

Ryzhenkov emphasised that the very fact that humanitarian assistance can be conditioned by unlawful unilateral measures already undermines humanitarian principles. “Unfortunately, the current state of international relations forces us to conclude that respect for sovereignty and equality of all states is more a dream than a reality. The only solution, without doubt, is the complete and unconditional lifting of all sanctions,” he added.

By Jeyhun Aghazada