The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

On 8 May the day of commemoration of the martyr feat of the Apostolic Greek-Catholic Exarch of Belarus Anton Nemantsevich and his parish on the territory of Palesse and Hrodna region. The secretary of the Congregation on affairs of Eastern Churches, archbishop Kiryl Vasil took part in the commemorative prayer.

Slonim District Executive Committee prohibited the local democratic activists to hold a picket against the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus. The official reason is that the application was filled in the wrong way. The organizers intended to hold the action on 26 April, an anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl NPP.

Slonim residents Mikalai Radkevich and Ivan Sheha have lodged a complaint with Slonim District Prosecutor’s Office and Hrodna Regional Executive Committee, appealing a ban imposed on holding a meeting on Freedom Day.

A group of residents of the town of Slonim have addressed Prosecutor General Aliaksandr Koniuk with a demand to immediately release Siarhei Kavalenka, referring to his extremely poor condition.

On 7 March members of the democratic society of Slonim applied to the Slonim District Executive Committee with the application for authorization of a rally dedicated to the Freedom Day, 25 March (the date of the proclamation of the Belarusian People's Republic in 1918), in the city park.

On 25 February, Slonim police detained activist of the Tell the Truth civil campaign Mikhail Pashkevich, as he was distributing leaflets outside the town’s central market.

On 19 January, Slonim District Court dismissed an appeal against a decision by the town executive committee to ban a series of pickets of solidarity with Ales Bialiatski.

Ivan Sheha, Slonim leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, has lodged a lawsuit against local executive authorities, after he has been repeatedly denied the right to hold pickets in support of imprisoned Viasna leader Ales Bialiatski between 3 September and 3 December 2011.

Slonim district executive committee has banned a picket of solidarity with imprisoned Viasna leader Ales Bialiatski, referring to the absence of authorized locations for holding such events.

About 20 workers of a workshop of the Slonim cardboard and paper plant “Albiartsin” wrote applications for leaving the official Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus. They decided to create a unit of the Free Trade Union. The reason for such a decision is the failure of the state trade union to solve their problems.