The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for 24 Apr 2015

24.04.2015 Interior Ministry uses family visits as means of repression

Comparing prison rules in Belarus and those in other former Soviet countries, Pavel Sapelka, an expert in the Belarusian prison system, came to the conclusion that this comparison is not in favor of Belarusian prisoners.

24.04.2015 CoE Commissioner for Human Rights: 2014 was a bad year for human rights in Europe

“Last year thousands of people died who should not have died, primarily in the Mediterranean Sea and in eastern Ukraine. They should not have died in a Europe that prides itself on being a space where the rule of law and democracy prevails, on a continent that claims to have drawn lessons from its own bloody and violent history,” said yesterday Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, while presenting his annual activity report.

24.04.2015 Chernobyl Way rally to cost organisers 14 million rubles

Each of the organisers has to pay 2,732,300 Belarusian rubles.

24.04.2015 Baranavičy authorities ban trade union May Day rally

The Baranavičy City Executive Committee has not allowed local trade union activist Ryhor Hryk to organize a May Day picket, which was expected to raise the issues of protection of labor, social and political rights of the citizens of Belarus.

24.04.2015 Chairman of Hrodna Regional Court turns down appeal by local UCP leader

Aliaksandra Vasilevich, head of the Hrodna regional office of the United Civil Party, has received a negative decision from Chairman of the Hrodna Regional Court in a continued challenge against the penalty imposed on her by the Svislač District Court on 16 December 2014.

24.04.2015 Wheelchair user in Babrujsk offered to install lift at own expense

Anastasiya Fiodarava, a wheelchair user from Babrujsk, has received a reply from the Mahilioŭ Regional Executive Committee. The girl asked the officials to assist in the installation of a wheelchair lift at the entrance to an apartment building where she lives. According to Anastasiya, she cannot leave the apartment in her new electric wheelchair.

24.04.2015 House of Representatives: Secrecy of executions suggests anonymity of burial

Tamara Sialiun, the mother of Pavel Sialiun, who was executed in April 2014, has received a reply from the House of Representatives of the National Assembly to her request asking to initiate amendments of Article 175 of the Criminal Executive Code, which prohibits handing over the bodies of executed prisoners for burial or disclosing the place of their burial.