"There are at least 16 political prisoners with disabilities behind bars." The alternative report to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The situation with the rights of people with disabilities in Belarus was reviewed in Geneva. Viasna wrote about the report of the Belarusian authorities on the issue. And now we will speak about the role played by Belarusian human rights defenders.

Natallia Satsunkevich, Juan Ignacio Pérez Bello, and Siarhei Drazdouski

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities met with the Belarusian civil society, in particular with those people who prepared an alternative report on Belarus. Among them are Natallia Satsunkevich, a representative of Viasna, and Siarhei Drazdouski, director of the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

"The human rights situation in Belarus is deteriorating every month, new people are being arrested and persecuted, and right now people are facing torture," Natallia Satsunkevich said at a meeting with the Committee. "Any attempt to publicly exercise their rights or criticize the government leads to arrests and repression. People are afraid to turn to human rights defenders and independent journalists. Viasna is recognized as an extremist formation, and participation in its activities or sharing its information entails criminal prosecution and imprisonment for up to 6 years.

In our report, we pay special attention to vulnerable groups and are pleased to provide the committee with information on the civil and political rights of people with disabilities. To date, it is known that politically motivated criminal prosecution has been used against more than 3,300 people, of whom 1,385 are imprisoned. According to Viasna Human Rights Center, among those convicted for political reasons and serving sentences in penal colonies and prisons, there are at least 16 people with disabilities, 91 people with serious illnesses, 65 elderly people over 60 years old (many of whom also have serious health problems), and 10 people with mental disabilities. This data is incomplete. It should also be borne in mind that the recognizing a person's disability in places of detention is fraught with great difficulties, which is why many people are not considered by the authorities as disabled."

Natallia Satsunkevich also mentioned Article 10 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Right to life, which says that "States Parties [to the Convention] reaffirm that every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others."

"Convicted people with disabilities are not provided with proper medical care, which has led to the death of several political prisoners with disabilities in penal colonies in recent years," Natallia Satsunkevich told the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. "On February 20, 2024, political prisoner and public figure Ihar Lednik died at the age of 64. He was arbitrarily sentenced to three years of imprisonment for slandering Aliaksandr Lukashenka in a print publication. The political prisoner had a disability due to heart problems, but he was sentenced to imprisonment anyway. In imprisonment, Ihar Lednik's health deteriorated significantly, and he underwent surgery on the gastrointestinal tract. The cause of death of the political prisoner was cardiac arrest.

In May 2023, Mikalai Klimovich, a 61-year-old public activist from Pinsk, died in Viciebsk colony No. 3. He was sentenced to one year of imprisonment in a penal colony for leaving a reaction to a caricature with Lukashenka on Odnoklassniki social media page. Mikalai Klimovich had a disability: he suffered a stroke and underwent a complicated heart surgery."

In addition, the human rights defender drew attention to such an unresolved problem as the placement of people with mental disabilities in pre-trial detention facilities for several months before the court decision. At this time, they receive almost no treatment and are kept in shared cells or in solitary cells.

"People with disabilities and the elderly are regularly victims of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, especially in connection with criminal charges for political reasons," Natalia Satsunkevich said. "Halina Dzerbysh, a 63-year-old woman with disabilities and cancer, who is persecuted for political reasons, was placed in solitary confinement for 10 days in prison No. 1 in Hrodna, where she was not given the necessary medicines, which caused her to lose consciousness several times. The woman was kept in solitary confinement for 15 months. She is currently in a penal colony without communication with the external world. There are reports of her extremely difficult state. As my colleague said, statistics are not provided, and this does not allow us to develop and apply strategies to implement the current convention in relation to convicted and imprisoned persons with disabilities."

Siarhei Drazdouski, Director of the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is among the participants and drafters of the alternative report. He spoke about the recommendations that civil society has made for the Belarusian authorities:

• In pursuance, inter alia, of Articles 15 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to immediately release from detention all persons with disabilities and health disorders (which can directly be regarded as unrecognized disability) who are there on politically motivated grounds.

• To immediately begin to fulfill the obligations under Article 31 of the Convention, ensuring the right of citizens to access appropriate information, including statistical and research data on disability, as well as complete and comprehensive reports from the government, government bodies, and local authorities on the progress of state disability programs and obligations in this area.

• To stop persecution, including censorship, for dissent and criticism related to disability against the State and State bodies, and the policies they pursue.

• To continue work on improving the national disability policy, paying special attention to the human rights aspect.

• To implement the norms of the CRPD more thoroughly, taking into account the Committee's general comments, taking into account the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

• To reorganize the Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities under the Council of Ministers into a structure operating according to democratic rules.

• To develop and adopt framework anti-discrimination legislation to fully and effectively protect persons with disabilities from discrimination. To provide legislation with direct rules prohibiting various forms of discrimination and effective protection measures.

• To immediately proceed with the revision of legislation containing discrimination on the basis of disability.

• To stop and block historically discriminatory practices.

• To recognize the problem of institutionalization of people with disabilities. To develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national deinstitutionalization program. National disability programmes should focus on the priorities of independent living in local communities, transferring the priority of decision-making and resource management to the individual themself.

• To proceed to the definition and examination of disability based on the International Classification of Functioning (WHO).

• To develop measures to diversify the state monopoly in social services, rehabilitation and habilitation, healthcare, ensuring equal conditions of participation for providers with various forms of ownership.

• To review legal relations in legal capacity regulation. To bring national legislation on legal capacity and competence in accordance with the CRPD.

• To sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The full version of the alternative report on Belarus can be found here.