Mahiliou activists start collecting signatures for adoption of Law "On Public Hearings"

The campaign was launched by the activists of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) who think that the adoption of the new law will contribute to the ordering of the existing juridical terminology, will make it possible to use the law in all spheres which concern the rights of common people and prevent tensions during clashes between the interests of the state and its citizens.

Ihar Barysau, a member of the Presidium of Belarusian Social Democratic Party, thinks that the adoption of the law “On Public Hearings” will considerably decrease the number of so-called “hot spots” which keep appearing not only in Mahiliou, but on the territory of Belarus in general as a result of confrontation between the interests of citizens and officials.

“There are a number of cases in Mahiliou where state officials ignore the interests of ordinary people. It’s enough mentioning the incidents in the “Yubileiny” and “Chapayeuka” suburbs and in the village Niadashava-2 in the Mahiliou district. Here the authorities took some decisions which contradicted the interests of local citizens, ignoring their opinion. This resulted in spontaneous protest rallies, collection of signatures, filing complains, and in some cases – even court proceedings,” says Ihar Barysau.

Social democrats are sure that these “hot spots” appeared due to the imperfectness of the existing legislation, corruption and ignorance of the legal interests of citizens.


Human rights defender Barys Bukhel confirms the vital necessity of the Law “On Public Hearings”: “I analyzed the existing legislation. Public hearings are mentioned in the Water Code, the Law “On Land” and ecological legislation. The notion “public discussion” is also present in the legislation on architecture, urban planning and construction works. However, there is no general law which would completely satisfy the needs of the society and systematize the existing notions.”

Bear in mind that before starting the collection of signatures BSDP activists widely discussed their initiative, even by means of a round table with the participation of various civil organizations and political parties, as well as citizens of the aforementioned “hot spots”. The overwhelming majority of the present people supported their initiative.