Belarus is among world's worst countries on freedom of press
Freedom House has published its report
on freedom of the press in 2012. Belarus got in the list of the most
repressive countries.
According to the report, the most
liberal ones are Norway and Sweden, followed by a number of the
European countries and the US.
The worst countries for
journalists are Belarus, Cuba, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Iran,
Northern Korea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan: according to the report,
the independent press is factually non-existent in them.
Russia,
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are the causes of special concern, and
Russia stands among the authoritarian regimes which actively smother
freedom of the press on par with China and
Iran.
freedom-house-2012.png
"Viasna" urges the
authorities to stop the practice of pressurizing civic activists and
take measures for the abolishment of Article 193.1 of the Criminal
Code
Human Rights Center "Viasna"
Minsk, 2
May 2013
Statement
The Human Rights
Center "Viasna" urges the Belarusian authorities to stop
the practice of intimidation and pressurization of civic activists
and immediately decriminalize the activity of unregistered
organizations.
During the last two months the Human Rights
Center "Viasna" has registered an increase in the number of
official warnings about the inadmissibility of activities on behalf
of unregistered organizations, issued by by the prosecutor's office
and KGB to civic activists and human rights defenders.
On 18
April 2013 Biaroza District Prosecutor's Office issued a warning for
actions on behalf of unregistered organization to an activist of the
civil campaign "Tell The Truth" Aliaksandr Kuzmin.
On
24 April 2013 the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of
Belarus issued a written warning about the inadmissibility of
activities on behalf of unregistered organization to human rights
defender Tamara Siarhei.
On 29 April 2013 an activist of the
Belarusian Christian Democracy Party Aleh Aksionau, put on a
prophylactic register of the KGB in October 2012 for such activities,
was summonsed for a prophylactic talk by the KGB.
All
aforementioned people were warned about the possible punishment under
Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, which
envisages up to 2 years of imprisonment as punishment.
Human
Rights Center "Viasna" considers it necessary to remind
that freedom of association is guaranteed to citizens of Belarus by
Article 36 of the Constitution. According to Article 23 of the
Constitution, rights and freedoms of individuals can be restricted
only in the cases provided by the law – for the interests of the
national security, public order, protection of public morals, health,
rights and freedoms of other individuals. Article 5 of the
Constitution also contains an exhaustive enumeration of the
admissible restrictions of the right to association: banned is the
creation and activity of the political parties and other civic
associations seeking to violently change the state order or
propagating war, social, national, religious or racial enmity. From
the viewpoint of the constitutional guarantees and the admissible
restrictions it is evident that the existence of criminal punishment
for the very fact of acting on behalf of an unregistered organization
is a violation of freedom of associations, guaranteed by the
Constitution.
On 15 October 2011 the European Commission for
Democracy by mandate of the Council of Europe (Venice Commission)
prepared a conclusion, according to which Article 193.1 of the
Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus was found incompatible with
the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and other international undertakings of the Republic of
Belarus.
It's worth reminding that during 2008-2010 the duty
officials of the Ministry of Justice and the Presidential
Administration of the Republic of Belarus have repeatedly stated the
possibility of the abolishment of this article of the Criminal
Code.
In the view of the aforesaid the Human Rights Center
"Viasna" again calls on the Belarusian authorities to stop
the practice of the pressurization of civic activists and take
measures for the abolishment of Article 193.1 and decriminalization
of activities of unregistered organizations.
Reference
Article
193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (illegal
organization or participation in the activities of a civic
association, religious organization or fund) is punished with a fine,
up to 6 months of arrest or up to 2 years of jail.
18 cases of
punishment of people under this article have been registered since
2006.
In February 2011 the General Prosecutor's Office of the
Republic of Belarus issued a written warning about the
inadmissibility of activities on behalf of unregistered organization
to the head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Ales
Bialiatski.
