News on the topic: human rights defenders
09.12.2009 Hrodna: another human rights picket banned
On 9 December the human rights defender Viktar Sazonau applied to Hrodna city executive committee as he didn’t receive an answer to his application for picket within the legal terms.
08.12.2009 Delegation of human rights defenders in Geneva
The head of the Human Rights Center Viasna Ales Bialiatski, the deputy head of Viasna Valiantsin Stefanovich and the head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak have come to Zheneva within the frames of preparation to presentation at the UN Human Rights Council of the Universal Periodical Report on Belarus.
08.12.2009 Why do authorities fear pickets on anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
These days Belarusian human rights defenders have received about ten denials in authorization of the pickets they intended to hold for marking the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
08.12.2009 Homel: human rights defenders sue city administration
Homel human rights defenders Leanid Sudalenka and Anatol Paplauny filed a lawsuit to the Tsentralny district court of Homel against the numerous refusals of Homel city executive committee to authorize the meetings, pickets and other mass events that were organized by them, after the authorities banned to them a picket dedicated to the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
07.12.2009 Zhodzina: picket for protection of right to learn in mother-tongue
Zhodzina human rights defenders Aliaksei and Sviatlana Lapitskis applied to the local executive committee for authorization of a picket dated to the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, they have little hope that their action will be permitted.
07.12.2009 Homel: authorities ban human rights picket
Homel human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka and member of the BPF Party Anatol Paplauny have applied to Homel city executive committee for the authorization of the picket dated to the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
04.12.2009 Biaroza authoritites ban human rights picket
Biaroza district executive committee prohibited the civil activists Tamara Shchapiotkina and Siarhei Rusetski to hold a picket on 13 December.
02.12.2009 Valiantsin Stefanovich: ‘No referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty, the legislation needs to be amended instead’
‘Legally, no referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty,’ says human rights activist and Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich, commenting President Lukashenka’s recent statement in an interview with the La Stampa newspaper. Lukashenka said that the use of the death penalty is based on the results of the 1996 referendum and that, ‘under the Constitution, only another referendum can reverse its results.’
02.12.2009 Human rights activists submit alternative report to UN
A number of key Belarusian human rights NGOs, including the Human Rights Center Viasna, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the Belarusian Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, have compiled an alternative report on human rights in Belarus to be considered by the UN Human Rights Council.
02.12.2009 Revocation of Article 193-1 still open-ended
Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code may be decriminalized in the near future, says Mr. Huminski, head of the Standing Commission for National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, in reply to a complaint by Brest human rights lawyer Uladzimir Malei.
30.11.2009 Human rights activist forcibly taken to mental hospital
Human rights activist and businessman Viktar Chabatarou has been forcibly taken to Navinki mental hospital by Kalinkavichy police. According to Mr. Chabatarou’s son, the activist was ‘arrested by road police while going to Minsk for an independent psychiatric examination’, initiated by Judge Mrs. Liudmila Savastsianava of Kalinkavichy District Court. None of his family members was informed of the detention.
25.11.2009 Aleh Hulak: ‘The death penalty is a humiliation of people, the right, the present’
Aleh Hulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, has joined the campaign against the death penalty in Belarus. ‘I believe that Belarus must abolish the death penalty. It is savage to allow the state to murder a human being in the XXI century.
20.11.2009 Death convict Andrei Zhuk pleas for mercy
Andrei Zhuk, sentenced to death for alleged murder of two persons, has lodged a plea for mercy with President Lukashenka. This is his last and only chance. Belarusian human rights activists believe that Andrei Zhuk should be pardoned. ‘We, as human rights defenders, call upon the Belarusian authorities to display humanism. Andrei Zhuk’s family have also addressed the President with a plea for mercy. Albeit lacking any legal effect, we do hope their appeal will be taken into consideration by the authorities, too,’ said Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich.
20.11.2009 BHC joins ENEMO
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee has become member of the ENEMO European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations. ENEMO is an association of civil NGOs from 16 Balkan, USSR and SEE countries. These NGOs are the leading organizations in their countries within Election monitoring area. All together, they have monitored over 110 national and international elections and trained over 100,000 observers. BHC is the second Belarusian NGO, after the Human Rights Center Viasna, to join the network.
16.11.2009 Belarusian authorities consider Yuzepchuk’s address to UN illegal
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has received from the state organs of Belarus explanations concerning the individual communication on behalf of the death convict Vasil Yuzepchuk.
