24.08.2017 Amnesty International: Dzmitry Paliyenka is a prisoner of conscience
Amnesty International believes that Dzmitry Paliyenka has been targeted by the authorities because of his peaceful activism and, as such, that he is a prisoner of conscience. Amnesty International urges the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him.
23.08.2017 Civil Rights Defenders: Belarus Must Drop Charges Against Ihar Komlik and Henadz Fiadynich
Civil Rights Defenders calls upon the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Ihar Komlik and to drop all charges against Ihar Komlik and Henadz Fiadynich.
14.08.2017 Henadz Fiadynich charged with tax evasion
Henadz Fiadynich, head of the independent Trade Union of Radio and Electronic Industry (REP), has been officially charged with tax evasion, BelaPAN said quoting the Investigative Committee’s spokesperson Yuliya Hancharova.
10.08.2017 Observatory condemns judicial harassment against trade union leaders in Belarus
The Observatory fears that REP and BITU leaders are being targeted in reprisal for their human rights activities and calls for the immediate release of Mr. Komlik, as well as ending all judicial harassment against REP and BITU leaders, in particular Messrs Komlik and Fiadynich, in so far as it appears to only aim at sanctioning their peaceful and legitimate human rights activities.
09.08.2017 International trade union leaders call to end persecution of Fiadynich and Komlik
Valter Sanches, General Secretary of the IndustriALL Global Union, and Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), have expressed deep concern and outrage at the recent searches in the offices of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BNP) and the Belarusian Trade Union of Radio Electronic Industry (REP) in a letter to President Lukashenka, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prosecutor General of Belarus.
04.08.2017 Stop prosecution of Henadz Fiadynich and Ihar Komlik
Joint Statement of Belarusian Human Rights Organizations
02.08.2017 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: July 2017
The government of Belarus still adheres to the policy of repression against civil society activists and members of the political opposition, which started in the spring of this year, while assumptions of its mitigation are still premature.
21.07.2017 Two new death verdicts handed down in Mahilioŭ
The Mahilioŭ Regional Court completed today the hearing of a headline-making case of ‘black estate agents’, sentencing two defendants, Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnou, to death and two more, Tatsiana Hershankova and Barys Kalesnikau, to lengthy prison terms.
20.07.2017 MEPs visit Belarus to hear conditions for addressing systemic human rights crisis
On July 19, a delegation of the European Parliament met in Minsk with representatives of the Belarusian civil society organizations, who provided their assessment of the current situation in the country and spoke about the obstacles and constraints they face in their work.
18.07.2017 Amnesty International: Aliaksei Mikhalenya at risk of imminent execution
On 30 June, the Supreme Court denied Aliaksei Mikhalenya’s appeal and upheld his death sentence. Aliaksei Mikhalenya was later transferred to the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) #1 in Minsk where death row inmates are kept and death sentences are believed to be executed. He is at risk of imminent execution.
17.07.2017 Anar Mammadli: “While Belarusian government still wants to imitate democracy, in Azerbaijan it has already finished imitation”
Comparing the situation in Belarus and Azerbaijan, it can be noted that the authorities of both countries exchange experience of harassment of civil society activists. In particular, we periodically have to watch the waves of persecution of human rights defenders in the two ex-Soviet countries.
14.07.2017 Liu Xiaobo: A man who spoke truth to power
While history will not judge Beijing kindly—after all, the only other Nobel Peace laureate who died in custody was Carl von Ossietzki in 1938 Nazi Germany—foreign governments also bear a share of responsibility.
10.07.2017 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: June 2017
The closing of a series of criminal cases with clear political motives and the release of all the persons arrested on the eve of March 25, prompt cautious optimism, but do not testify to a change of the government’s policy in the field of protecting human rights as a whole and do not give grounds for claims of less repressive practices as an established trend.
06.07.2017 Resolution of OSCE Civil Society Parallel Forum (document)
Participants of the OSCE Parallel Civil Society Forum in Minsk, representing civil society organisations from across the OSCE region, both east and west of Vienna, gathered on the eve of the 26th annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to discuss challenges to the implementation of the Helsinki principles and the OSCE commitments and strategies of the international community to address them.
05.07.2017 Key Notes from Civil Society Parallel Forum in Minsk
At the Civil Society Parallel Forum on July 4 in Minsk, international and Belarusian human rights defenders held a briefing with the participation of Miklós Haraszti, the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus whose mandate is not recognized by the Belarus Foreign Affairs Ministry.
