‘Nasha Viasna’ got no answer from the Ministry of Justice in the due term
Today the human rights activist Uladzimir Labkovich, the legal representative of the interests of founders of the civil human rights association Nasha Viasna, called to the specialist of the Ministry of Justice Alexander Kharyton to ask about the ministry’s decision concerning the registration of the human rights association.
Mr. Kharyton said that the documents on registration have not been sent to the founders, as the decision on registration of Nasha Viasna would be taken by the College Board of the Ministry of Justice. The date of the board’s sitting is not known as of now.
On 26 February the month’s term, within which the Ministry of Justice was to have taken a decision on registration of the NGO, ended. It means that the Ministry of Justice, the main task of which is to ensure the respect to the law in the country, violates the law.
Uladzimir Labkovich says that such attitude to consideration of the registration documents leaves few hopes that Nasha Viasna will be registered.
Bear in mind that on 18 January in Minsk there took place the constituent assembly of the human rights NGO Nasha Viasna. The well-known human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was chosen its chairperson. The NGO was founded by human rights activists, journalists and civil activists from different parts of Belarus. Most of them are members of the Human Rights Center Viasna, liquidated by the Supreme Court in October 2003.
They have already taken several attempts to register a new organization, but received refusals for wire-drawn reasons each time.
In 2007 the UN Human Rights Committee took the decision on the complaint against the Viasna liquidation. It stated that it was necessary to restore the legal status of the illegally liquidated Human Rights Center Viasna and that the liquidation of the organization was a disproportional punishment and did not meet the requirements of Article 22, part 2… That’s why the applicants had the right to the appropriate means of legal defense including the re-registration of Viasna and compensation. However, the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court ignored this decision of the UN Human Rights Committee.
On 26 January the registration documents were submitted to the Ministry of Justice.
