European human rights organizations started collecting signatures under the petition to President of Belarus

On 10 December, the Human Rights Day, the Belarusian Human Rights House in exile in Vilnius in cooperation with other organization declares the beginning of the electronic collection of signatures to the incumbent and to the future President of Belarus at the website http://www.belarus-petition.org.

The initiators of the project are also Amnesty International, Libereco, Young European Federalists, Civil Rights Defenders, the Human Rights House Foundation, Association Human Rights in Belarus, Östgruppen, Belarus Watch, People in Need, Codap and Wolna Białoruś.

The petition calls Belarus to respect the rights that serve as the fundament of the functioning of the modern society. In particular, it contains the following recommendations:

- to declare an immediate moratorium on executions and to abolish the death penalty

- to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, press and religion to all people in Belarus

- to allow peaceful demonstrations to take place

- to ensure that no one is detained, arrested or charged under any Article of the Criminal or Administrative Codes of Belarus as a result of their peaceful participation in demonstrations

- to ensure that human rights defenders, journalists and other civil society activists are able to carry out their legitimate work free from persecution, harassment and intimidation

- to simplify the registration procedures for non-governmental organizations

- to abolish Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes activities on behalf of an unregistered non-governmental organization.

One can sign the online petition before the day of inauguration of President of Belarus. All signatures will be passed to the Belarusian authorities and the foreign embassies of Belarus.

Any organization wishing to support the petition can write to info@belarus-petition.org (in English or German). Private individuals can sign it by visiting http://www.belarus-petition.org.

We call you to support and distribute this petition.