The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for December 2009

03.12.2009 Central Election Commission and Parliament leave little hope to international observers

The international observers see no significant improvements in the conditions for election campaigning in Belarus even after the amendment of the electoral legislation. The experts show that the corrupt practice of non-admission of observers to counting of votes will be still used during the local elections ‘2010.

03.12.2009 Police spent 2 months ‘looking’ for results of check-up concerning violations of journalists’ rights

The police officers cannot find the results of the check-up of violations of journalists’ rights, held by the main police department of Minsk city executive committee, for two months already.

03.12.2009 Arrests for anti-Lukashenka performances

The young activists Pavel Prakapovich and Yahor Babrou were sentenced to 15 days of arrest, and Andrei Kuzminski to 7 days.

02.12.2009 Young Belarus activists detained in Minsk

Four Young Belarus activists – Yahor Babrou, Andrei Kuzminski, Nastassia Mashchava and Pavel Prakapovich – have been arrested in Minsk today as they were holding an unauthorized rally, the organization’s press-service reports. The activist are currently at a local police department.

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 Poet Andrei Khadanovich: ‘The death penalty has always been a means of restraint and intimidation’

Andrei Khadanovich, famous Belarusian poet, translator and head of the Belarusian PEN-Center, has joined the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus.

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 Article 193-1: 4 years of illegal activity

It is 4 years since criminal liability for illegal NGO membership was introduced to the Criminal Code. ‘The anniversary’ was marked by the release of a satirical cartoon criticizing the infamous article, as part of the campaign for its repeal. The cartoon can be viewed at the Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs’ official web-site.

02.12.2009 Jean-Louis Laurens: ‘The abolition of the death penalty requires the political will of the country’s leaders’

‘Of course, the Special Guest status is very important, but its absence is not an obstacle to the cooperation between the Council of Europe and Belarus in various fields,’ said Jean-Louis Laurens, Council of Europe's Director General of Democracy and Political Affairs, during his visit to Minsk, six months after PACE named the abolition of or the declaration of a moratorium on the death penalty as the key condition for the restoration of the country’s Special Guest status in the Council of Europe.

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.

01.12.2009 Amnesty International calls on Belarusian President to free youth activists

The Amnesty International human rights organization has issued a statement calling President Lukashenka 'to immediately and unconditionally release Artsyom Dubski, to lift the restrictions on Tatyana Tishkevich, Alyaksei Bondar, Mikhail Kryvau, Maxim Dashuk and Ales Charnyshou and to allow the three who have fled to return to Belarus without risk of further charges being brought against them.'

01.12.2009 Belarusian Society of Disabled People notes lack of government assistance

The Belarusian Society of Disabled People has not received government assistance for the implementation of social programs since 2001 and the authorities stopped funding the organization’s construction projects in 2002, Uladzimir Patapenka, chairman of the Society, told reporters in Minsk on Monday.

01.12.2009 ODIHR has not received Electoral Code amendments for review, spokesman says

The Belarusian authorities have not presented draft amendments to the Electoral Code to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for review despite an appropriate agreement reached this past February, Jens Eschenbaecher, spokesman for the institution, told BelaPAN.