‘Berastseiskaya Viasna’ – attempt #2
On 2 March the initiative group of human rights activists filed documents for registration of the human rights NGO Berastseiskaya Viasna to the justice department of Brest oblast executive committee.
One of the founders of the NGO Siarhei Housha said: ‘There are many law violations from the side of the authorities in villages and small towns. People are terrified there. They cannot apply to the state agencies, because all of them are subordinated to one power. Actually, there are no human rights there now.’
Mr. Housha is also skeptical about the declared liberalization. ‘We want to be registered. As there are talks about some thaw and democratization, we have made an attempt again. However, we waited for one month and then learned that we weren’t registered. That’s why we are making the second attempt and will wait for the results.’
The association was founded by the well-known civil activists who have been engaged in human rights activities for quite a long time already.
In 2003 the Supreme Court liquidated the republican human rights NGO Human Rights Center ‘Viasna’ and in 2004 the activity of its Brest oblast branch was stopped.
A month later the local human rights activists tried to register a local human rights organization under the same name, but the republican commission on registration of NGOs denied it registration.
The lawyer Uladzimir Vialichkin believes that the decision on registration of the organization will show the real value of the statements about liberalization in Belarus.
