The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

All information concerning the analysis of penal law and penal system monitoring will be published in a thematic section on the website of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”.

The section’s expert is lawyer Pavel Sapelka.

Here is an article by Pavel Sapelka, dealing with the urgency of the issue of human rights violations against people in custody, those serving sentences and held in other institutions.

Vitsebsk police keep harassing the staff of local independent newspaper Vitsebski Kurier, as the weekly’s reporter Yulia Kanapliova was detained by road police on 20 May.

Mrs. Anzhalika Kambalava, member of Baranavichy office of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, has sent an open letter to chairman of the House of Representatives’ Legislation Commission Mikalai Samaseika, together with MPs Sviatlana Pishch and Anatol Vankovich, suggesting humanization of the country’s penal legislation.

Aliaksandr Shachanok, resident of the town of Bykhau, Mahiliou region, has lodged a complaint with the Regional Prosecutor’s Office against an earlier decision by the prosecutor of Bykhau district to deny prosecution of local policeman Vital Vashchyla for alleged forging a police report (Par. 1 Art. 427 of the Criminal Code) back in November 2011.

Salihorsk town executive officials have banned a bike ride marking the anniversary of the 1995 referendum that introduced new state symbols instead of the historical Pahonia coat of arms and the white-red-white flag.