Another complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee

On 1 July the members of the liquidated cultural and educational NGO Stary Horad which used to operate on the territory of Brest filed a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee against the liquidation. Stary Horad was registered in 1992 for support of the public and cultural initiatives of Brest residents, aimed at development and wellbeing of their city. On 12 April 2007 Brest oblast court ruled to liquidate the organization on suit of Brest oblast executive committee.

According to the human rights activist Raman Kisliak, the essence of the individual addresses to the UN Human Rights Committee which were sent by the members of the organization Yauhen Bialasin, Iryna Laurouskaya, Siarhei Panasevich and Palina Panasiuk is that the NGO was liquidated for wire-drawn reasons. The applicants also draw a number of facts to prove their opinion.

In particular, one of the reasons for liquidation of Stary Horad is the absence of legal address, which is not true. The other official reason for the liquidation is that the organization charter did not correspond to the present legislation of Belarus, is also considered as insufficient by the applicants. They are convinced that the ruling for liquidation of their NGO was revenge for their public convictions and was legal lynching of the organization, the existence of which was undesirable for the local authorities.

To their mind, the court verdict violates the right to association and the right to be tried by fair and unbiased court, guaranteed by articles 22 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In their addresses the people also turn the attention of the UN Human Rights Committee to the fact that since 2000 dozens of NGOs have been liquidated in Belarus for wire-drawn reasons, including Brest oblast center Vezha, Hrodna association Ratusha, Human Rights Center Viasna, Homel association Civil Initiatives, Independent Society for Legal Research and the youth association Suzoryie.