“A noose around the neck of civil society in Belarus", the name of the briefing hosted by the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

On 29 March in Geneva the Palace of Nations hosted a briefing on the topic of “Noose around the neck of civil society in Belarus”. The briefing was attended by the representatives of the Belarusian human rights organizations Alies Bialiatski, Chair of the Human Rights Center Viasna, Zmitsier Markusheuski, a member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Sviatlana Zavadzkaya, wife of the disappeared journalist Dzmitry Zavadski, who represented the civil initiate We Remember, Siarhei Salash, leader of the Barysau non-governmental organization Skryzhavannie, and Volha Stuzhynskaya, a representative for the civil initiate Free Belarus.
The speakers highlighted the human rights situation in Belarus, raising such issues as the disappearance of politicians and the journalist, recently reinforced reprisals against the civil society activists and political opposition representatives, violations of the NGO rights, violation of the linguistic and cultural rights in Belarus.
In particular, HRC Viasna Chair Alies Bialiatski spoke of the increasing number of criminal cases initiated in the past few months against the public activists, and also about the mass detentions and arrests that took place in Minsk on 25 March during the celebration of the Day of Freedom. All of the speakers underscored the important role played by the international community in containing and condemning the actions by A.Lukashenka’s regime. The briefing aroused great interest from the representatives of national delegations taking part in the 61st session of the Human Rights Committee, and also representatives of the international NGOs. The briefing was organized with the support of the International Federation of Human Rights and the International League for Human Rights.