Belarusian Government Wants to Fool UN Committee on Human Rights
The Government of Belarus filed to Geneva “information concerning the information, submitted to the UN Committee on Human Rights by A.V. Bialiatski.” The answer of the Government is connected to the continuation of the consideration of Ales Bialiatski’s complaint to the UN Committee on Human Rights concerning the liquidation of the Public association “Human Rights Center “Viasna”.
Keeping to the procedure, the committee made an inquiry to the Government of the Government of Belarus, which, in its turn, submitted to the Committee false information that actually conforms to the verdict of the Supreme Court which liquidated “Viasna” for political reasons.
The lawyer of Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich says:
-- They actually copied the verdict of the Supreme Court. In this answer it is stated that “Viasna” was liquidated for violations of the electoral legislation that were made in 2001. According to the officials, this violation is confirmed by the warning of the Ministry of Justice of 28 August 2001 and the ruling of the Central Election Committee of 8 September 2001. Being guided by the results of the check-up that was conducted by the Ministry of Justice and the prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Belarus the ruling concludes that “Viasna” violated the norms of the electoral legislation during nomination of election observers to polling stations during the presidential election of 2001. The Government disproves the statements of A. Bialiatski that the principle of equality before court and the right to fair trial were violated. The Government insists that the court thoroughly studies the case and kept to the principles of equality of the sides and independence of the trial.
We sent to Geneva our comments concerning the answer of the Government. We again disprove this all and state that the court wasn’t independent and its decision was politically motivated. The only reason for the liquidation was so called violation of the electoral legislation. Besides, the Government neglects article 117 of the Election Code, to which we referred during the trial. In this article it is stated that activity of public organizations is regulated by the Law “About public associations”. This law enumerates all cases, in which an organization can be liquidated. Human Rights Center “Viasna” violated none of these points for the whole time of its existence. That’s why we think that the court decision was lawless. The political nature of the liquidation was also confirmed by the conclusion of FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights with the headquarters in Paris), the experts of which conducted the monitoring of the trial and concluded that the decision was politically motivated.
