News on the topic: international organizations
06.08.2008 Committee to Protect Journalists urges President Lukashenka to reconsider repressive media law
The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled to learn that President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a restrictive new media law, which, according to CPJ research, will allow authorities to further restrict press freedom in Belarus.
11.07.2008 Human Rights Watch calls Prosecutor General to drop charges against Andrei Kim
Human Rights Watch is an international, nonpartisan, nongovernmental human rights organization with offices around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Geneva, Brussels, Moscow, and Tashkent. Its Europe and Central Asia division has monitored and urged compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords in signatory countries and with international human rights law since the organization was formed in 1978. We are writing to express our profound concern about the recent arrests and disproportionate sentences of 10 youth activists for participating in a peaceful, but unsanctioned, protest on January 10, 2008. We are especially concerned about Andrei Kim, who is among these ten and who was arrested at a subsequent peaceful protest on January 21. He was charged with violations related to both protests and received a disproportionately harsh sentence for offences based on what we believe to be political reasons.
10.07.2008 Brest: Yury Bakur complains to UN Human Rights Committee
Mr. Bakur decided to apply to the UN Human Rights Committee after going through all court instances of Belarus with complaints against the verdict of Maskouski district court of Brest, by which he had been fined 93 000 rubles (about $43).
10.07.2008 Belarusian Helsinki Committee becomes a partner of the Council of Europe
On 10 July the office of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee received the information that the Council of Europe has granted to it the status of a partner, thereby acknowledging the working relations which have been established between it and BHC.
08.07.2008 ‘Reporters Without Borders’ oppose adoption of new law ‘On mass media’
The international organization Reporters Without Borders has once again expressed its concern related to adoption of the new law On Mass Media in Belarus, which is to be signed into law by Alexander Lukashenka.
08.05.2008 Reporters Without Borders stands for Hazeta Slonimskaya
Reporters Without Borders condemns an eviction order and other efforts by local authorities to harass the weekly Hazeta Slonimskaya, the only independent newspaper in the western region of Hrodna. Its editor, Uladzimir Valadashchuk, appealed to readers for support on 30 April.
07.04.2008 Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights' Open Letter to Lukashenka
Dear Mr. President, We would like to express our serious concern regarding the trial agaisnt Ms Katsiaryna Salauyova, that is to be held on 8 April in Polatsk.
04.04.2008 Amnesty International: Demonstrators beaten during Freedom Day march
Amnesty International condemns the reportedly excessive use of force by Belarusian security forces against demonstrators who had gathered in the capital, Minsk, on 25 March 2008. Up to two thousand people had gathered in a square in the centre of the city to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the short-lived independence of Belarus in 1918, which is now referred to by the political opposition as Freedom Day. The authorities had not sanctioned the demonstration and President Alexander Lukashenka’s government had vowed to prevent any public action to mark the occasion.
01.04.2008 Amnesty International condemns beatings at Freedom Day celebration
The international human rights organization has issued an official note concerning the events of 25 March in Minsk.
01.04.2008 Belarus: Demonstrators beaten during Freedom Day march
Amnesty International Public Statement
28.03.2008 International human rights organizations condemn the arrests and brutal attacks by riot police of peaceful demonstrators in Minsk
Statement: The Human Rights House Foundation, the Rafto Foundation, Norwegian PEN, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and The Norwegian Union of Journalist condemn the arrests and brutal attacks by riot police of peaceful demonstrators in Minsk.
19.02.2008 FIDH and Viasna: Open Letter to Belarusian Authorities on Harassment against Zhaleznichenka
Minsk-Paris, 15 February 2008 – The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights Center “Viasna” express their deep concern about the Belarusian authorities’ repeated harassment against the youth activist Dmitry Zheleznichenko.
11.02.2008 Amnesty International and Belarusian Helsinki Committee Condemn Executions of Convicts in Belarus
On 5 February 5 the Supreme Court of Belarus announced that Siarhei Marozau, the leader of a Homel-based criminal gang, and his close associates, Valery Harbaty and Ihar Danchanka, had been executed by shooting. The three were sentenced to death by shooting in a months-long trial that came to an end on 1 December 2006. The so-called Marozau Gang, which was said to have terrorized the Homel region between 1990 and 2004, was accused of 16 murders.
09.02.2008 Press Conference of Belarusian Prisoners’ Relatives
Recently a group of relatives of the prisoners who received unfair sentences has held a press conference.
30.01.2008 Lidia Yarmoshyna: Institute of international election observation is a purely political tool
Institute of international election observation is a purely political tool, Lidia Yarmoshyna, chairperson of the Central Election Commission, stated in the interview to Belaruskaya Dumka magazine.
