The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

The raid is described by the local pro-government weekly. The newspaper “Naviny Palessia” (“News of Palesse”) posted an article entitled “Gypsies are not asleep - and you do not sleep!”, in which it emphasized that “persons of the Roma ethnic group are rightly considered as unreliable people: to become rich at the expense of others is a “good” tradition for some of them.

Anatol Hatouchyts, Homel leader of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, was summoned to the regional Prosecutor’s Office. Yesterday, he received a phone call from the senior assistant Prosecutor Dzmitry Deboi and invited to an interview. He explained that the Prosecutor’s Office possessed “evidence that on April 24 Hatouchyts prepared a video story for the satellite channel Belsat about the flood in Homel.”

The House of Representatives is reportedly discussing amendments to the Labor Code. The first reading of the bill is said to be underway at the moment.

Complaints to the international organization were sent activist of the Belarusian Popular Front “Adradzhenne” Siarhei Niahatsin and deputy chairman of the Free Trade Union of Belarus Yury Novikau.

"Prisoners of conscience remained in detention; some were sentenced to increased prison terms for violating prison rules. Civil society activists, including human rights defenders and journalists, faced violations of their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. Three men were executed," says the Belarus country section of the Report.

Participants in the 38th Congress of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which was opened today in Istanbul, held a rally to demand the release of prominent human rights defenders, FIDH Vice-President Ales Bialiatski and Nabeel Rajab, FIDH Deputy Secretary General.

For a week, from Thursday, May 23, to Monday, May 27, Istanbul will become the human rights capital of the world, with more than 200 NGOs from 130 countries gathering together. Belarus is represented at the Congress by Valiantsin Stefanovich, Deputy Head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, and lawyer Pavel Sapelka.

Valiantsin Stefanovich, Deputy Head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, does not share the optimism of the European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Belarus Justas Paleckis, who argues that the human rights situation in the country has improved recently, said he in an interview to the Interfax-West news agency.

Aliaksei Paulouski, resident of Mahiliou, submitted a complaint of a violation of the Law “On Public Appeals” by Chairman of the Parliament’s Upper Chamber, Anatol Rubinau. The complaint has been sent to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus.