Human rights defender appeals ruling about mass events

Human rights defender Uladzimir Tseliapun applied to the Mazyr District Court against ruling of the Mazyr District Executive Committee #1202 of 15 September 2011 concerning the holding of mass events. After the adoption of this ruling the local authorities started demanding that organizers of mass events concluded paid service agreements with police, medics and communal utilities and attached them to applications for the authorization of such actions.

“It's quite strange, but these institutions don't know how to conclude such agreements, how to assess the expenditures and what sums to take for their services,” says the human rights defender.

According to the Law “About normative-legal acts of the Republic of Belarus”, the rulings of the local executive and administrative bodies that don't correspond to the legislation of the Republic of Belarus are abolished by higher executive and administrative organs and by the President of the Republic of Belarus.

Tseliapun's appeal to the head of the Mazyr District Concil Siarhei Hvozdz yielded no results, and his appeal to the head of the Homel Region Executive Committee Uladzimir Dvornik was forwarded to the head of the justice board of the executive committee.

“In his answer V. Makarevich, the head of the justice board of the Homel Region Executive Committee, complains that they have no powers to amend, supplement, abolish … and in general, give any explanations or legal conclusions in the case of incompatibility of ruling of executive and administrative bodies with the law. Laws don't act, freedoms are a mere declaration, rights are absent... What will the court say now?”

Bear in mind that starting from 2006 all attempts of civil activists of Mazyr to hold mass events were banned by the authorities for absolutely different reasons.