Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office written question – answered at on 13 March 2024.
David Morris
Conservative, Morecambe and Lunesdale
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the debate entitled A democratic future for Belarus at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 25 January 2024.
Leo Docherty
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK values the work of the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe in highlighting the increasingly repressive landscape in Belarus, and the continued failure to hold democratic elections that meet international standards. We share the Assembly's ambition for a future democratic, independent Belarus. We have applied wide-ranging sanctions to Belarus in response to the regime's continued human rights violations. We will continue to put pressure on Lukashenko's regime in pursuit of the free and democratic society that Belarusians deserve.
Yes3 people think so
No2 people think not
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An international organisation of member states (45 at the time of writing) in the European region; not to be confused with the Council of the European Union, nor the European Council.
Founded on 5 May, 1949 by the Treaty of London, and currently seated in Strasbourg, membership is open to all European states which accept the princple of the rule of law and guarantee fundamental human rights and freedoms to their citizens. In 1950, this body created the European Convention on Human Rights, which laid out the foundation principles and basis on which the European Court of Human Rights stands.
Today, its primary activities include charters on a range of human rights, legal affairs, social cohesion policies, and focused working groups and charters on violence, democracy, and a range of other areas.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
