A/HRC/32/48 I. Introduction A. Background 1. The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to its resolution 29/17. Although the report is based on information received until 31 March 2016, it covers a period that goes beyond the previous report of the Special Rapporteur (A/HRC/29/43), given that it takes stock of the level of compliance by the Government of Belarus with the recommendations addressed to it in the past five years by United Nations human rights mechanisms. By doing so, the Special Rapporteur has endeavoured to assess overall changes, or absence of change, in the legal framework and in the practices of the State authorities with regard to human rights and fundamental freedoms. 2. The present review of the results of United Nations human rights advocacy in Belarus is offered by the Special Rapporteur between two crucial events: the presidential election of 2015, and the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 2016. In the wake of the presidential election held in December 2010, the Government of Belarus used massive violence against opposition leaders and their supporters. The incarceration of seven presidential candidates was followed by the systematic and deliberate curtailment of an extensive list of basic human rights. 3. In 2012, the Human Rights Council, on the basis of a report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/20/8), established by its resolution 20/13 the mandate of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, and requested the mandate holder to report annually to the Council and the General Assembly. The Council has since renewed the mandate three times, for one year, in its resolutions 23/15, 26/25 and 29/17. Other United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms, including the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, have also made numerous recommendations aimed at improving the situation of human rights and the Government’s compliance with the State’s international obligations. 4. The Special Rapporteur welcomed the release of six political prisoners (Mikalai Statkevich, Mikalai Dziadok, Ihar Alinevich, Yauhen Vaskovich, Artsiom Prakapenka and Yury Rubtsou) before the presidential election of 11 October 2015. The Special Rapporteur notes that the release was welcomed by intergovernmental organizations and by human rights organizations. 5. The Special Rapporteur also notes that the presidential election of 2015 was held without police violence and without the arrest of political opponents, unlike the previous presidential election of 2010. 6. While expressing relief at these concessions, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that release of the above-mentioned political prisoners was conducted in the same arbitrary manner as their incarceration. Furthermore, the release in no way supported the freedom of election, given that those released have not had their civil or political rights restored. As a result, the seven presidential candidates detained after the 2010 election, like other longterm political prisoners pardoned in 2014 (see A/HRC/29/43, para. 63), for example Ales Bialatski, were unable to stand for election in 2015. 7. Notwithstanding the absence of violence by law enforcement bodies, the conduct and results of the 2015 presidential election were assessed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as in no way less restrictive or more reliable than the 3