Deputy Head of the Department of Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Maria Vanshina Replies to the Question of BelTA Journalist in Reference to the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report

22 May 2013

22-05-2013

We are aware of the publication of the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report.

For the Belarusian side the report is of little interest, being an internal State Department’s document submitted to Congress.

The Republic of Belarus, regardless of such reports, strictly adheres both to its international obligations on the protection of religious freedoms and to its domestic law. A clear demonstration of that is Belarus’s report on the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which reflects the real situation with the protection of religious rights and liberties and contains concrete measures taken by the Government of Belarus in this area.

As for the State Department’s report, it is permeated with trite phrases and usual abstract rubber stamps which the authors of the report rewrite every year without even taking the trouble of doing reality checks.