The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

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Picks of the week

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Picks of the week

Critical blogger gets 8 jail terms in a row; opposition activist faces criminal charges; death convict and family report harassment

Stop judicial harassment of Dzmitry Kazlou!

Joint statement by human rights and other civil society organizations Minsk - January 21, 2020

Picks of the week

Nearly 100 punished over pro-independence protests; government resumes investigation into extrajudicial murder case; HRW criticizes Belarus over lack of progress in key human rights areas

Human Rights Situation in Belarus in 2019 (document)

In spite of a slight decrease in the overall level of repression in the country compared with the previous year, in 2019 Belarus failed to demonstrate any significant systemic changes in the area of civil and political rights, especially at the legislative level, aimed at the qualitative improvement of the human rights situation.

UN experts condemn Roma arrests in May 2019

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed serious concern about the mass detentions that were carried out in the Roma settlements of Mahilioŭ and other Belarusian cities in May 2019 and were accompanied by insults and physical violence by law enforcement officials.

EU, CoE “reaffirm strong opposition” to death penalty after new sentences delivered in Belarus

The European Union reaffirms its strong opposition against the application of capital punishment in any circumstance, the EU External Action Service said in a statement following the two death sentences handed down in Belarus on January 10.

Two men sentenced to death in Čerykaŭ

Two men, Illia Kostseu and Stanislau Kostseu, have been sentenced to death at a visiting session of the Mahilioŭ Regional Court held today in the town of Čerykaŭ. Judge Mikhail Melnikau found the two brothers, aged 21 and 19, respectively, of killing their former school teacher and setting her house on fire to destroy the evidence.

Human Rights Situation in Belarus: December 2019

The situation with human rights remained poor during the month. There was an overall deterioration of the situation in comparison to previous periods, which is primarily due to an increase in the number of cases of administrative responsibility targeting participants of peaceful assemblies.

Happy New Year!

Dear friends, colleagues and associates! We wish you a happy New Year!

EU, CoE, PACE call for moratorium in response to new execution in Belarus

The spokespersons of the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly have once again called on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on executions in Belarus. The statements were released after the news came of another execution in the continent’s last retentionist country.

Belarus executes another death row prisoner

Death row prisoner Aliaksandr Asipovich was executed by shooting on December 17, according to the Mahilioŭ Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Dozens face charges ahead of new protests against Belarus-Russia integration

Nearly forty people have been summoned to the police over their involvement in two protests against planned integration with Russia held in central Minsk on December 7 and 8. The demonstrations were not allowed by the authorities and the city police department had warned the protesters against joining the assemblies.

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