The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

On 23 July an initiative group of human rights activists applied to the Ministry of Justice for registration of the human rights public association Viasna. In the time when the authorities liquidate many NGOs and refuse to register new ones (as it recently happened to the human rights movement For Freedom!), a group of Belarusian human rights activists decided to unite their forces and try getting a state registration. A well-known human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) told us about the reasons which influenced this decision and the situation of the civil right to association in Belarus:

On 30 July Zavadski borough court of Minsk considered an administrative case against a member of Belarusian People’s Front Party Franak Viachorka. Viachorka was detained on 27 July, during an action dedicated to an anniversary of the State Sovereignty Declaration.

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An activist of the unregistered organization Young Front Zmitser Khvedaruk spent a day at Minsk Maskouski borough court. In the morning he was detained by people in mufti on the way to a trolleybus stop from the Justice House where he attended the trial of Kanstantsin Lukashou. The police accused him in using four-letter words and detained till evening.

The national public association Belarusian Helsinki Committee is disappointed with the fact that the activity of the coordinator of Russian National Unity (RNE) in Homel Mikhail Yakauchuk was qualified under article 193.1 of the Criminal Code (activity on behalf of unregistered organization). Earlier such article was used against political opposition. Yakauchuk was sentenced to 6 months of jail.

Activists of the public campaign Jeans for Freedom celebrated the State Sovereignty Day with a symbolic action. In the morning of 27 July 10 people came from Minsk to the Holy Mountain (during the times of the Soviet rule it was renamed after Derzhinsky and now is officially called Dziarzhynskaya). It is the highest hill in Belarus, 345 meters high. The activists put there a 6-meter flagpole with a red-white-red flag.