Picket for Freedom of Conscience
On 5 April the co-chair of the organizational committee on the establishment of Belarusian Christian Party Aliaksei Shein filed with Minsk city executive committee a request to authorize a picket aimed at turning public attention to the problems connected with freedom of conscience in Belarus. Shein wants to hold the picket at 5 – 7.30 p.m. on 20 April.
The activist says that the implementation of the law On freedom of conscience in practice leads to deprival of the citizens of religious freedom and intrusion of the ‘exclusive state ideology’. ‘This problem concerns everyone, as the right to freedom of conscience is an inalienable right each person receives at birth. The authorities are not the ones who give this right and therefore must not deprive people of it. At present in Belarus they usurped a part of the rights that belong to citizens,’ stated Aliaksei Shein. The activist also underlined that the law On freedom of conscience contains absurd regulations: ‘Three or more people can’t gather for Biblical readings, as can gather for drinking vodka, for instance’.
