Ministry of Justice Officials Hide from HR Activists

The organizing committee for creation of the public human rights association Viasna can’t get acquainted with the resolution of the ministry of justice on the organization registration though the deadline of the resolution making was 23 August.

The human rights activist Uladzimir Labkovich in his interview with the BelaPAN reported that "the official who is responsible for Viasna registration has been hiding somewhere for a couple of days and nobody answers the phone in the office of the head of the department for public associations. I am totally confused with the justice ministry’s logics as there was enough time for decision making on Viasna’s future in all the instances,’ he declared.

U.Labkovich informed that the human rights activists are drafting the claim addressed to the justice minister on the Belarusian law violation which demands a decision on the public association registration to be made within a month.

Human rights activist remarked that today in Belarus there are only several human rights organizations, among them the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Legal Initiative and Belarusian Association of Journalists. ‘In Belarus human rights activists are under strict surveillance, factually in the underground’, U.Labkovich considers.