Baranavichy activists ask how the authorities will implement Views of UN Human Rights Committee

On 7 June human rights defenders and social activists Siarhei Housha, Viktar Meziaka and Viktar Syrytsa filed an appeal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which they asked to be provided with information on measures taken by Belarus to implement the pinions of the UN Committee on Human Rights, set out on 27 July 2012.

At the end of December 2012 they received a 12-page response from the Human Rights Committee which stated that the facts which were presented to it witness a violation by Belarus of articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The complaint of the democratic activists to the UN concerned the ban on the rally "For Free, Independent and Prosperous Belarus" they intended to hold in Baranavichy on 10 September 2006. On 4 September 2006 Baranavichy City Executive Committee didn't allow Siarhei Housha, Viktar Meziak and Viktar Syrytsa to hold the rally, as a meeting on the same topic had already taken place in the premises of the City Executive Committee on 15 March 2006. The ban was challenged in the court of the district and the city of Baranavichy and then at the panel of judges on civil cases of the Brest Regional Court, after which an appeal was filed to the head of the Supreme Court of Belarus. However, all these complaints were dismissed. Thus, the activists exhausted all available domestic remedies in an attempt to exercise their right to peaceful assembly as guaranteed by Article 35 of the Constitution.

Human Rights Committee, the UN recommended that Belarus revise their national legislation and practice of its application in line with Art. 19 and 21 of the Covenant. In addition, the Committee requested the Republic of Belarus to print the above mentioned opinions and disseminate them widely in the state in Belarusian and Russian languages (paragraph 12 Opinion).

Being guided by the fact that according to Art. 35 of the Law "On International Treaties of the Republic of Belarus", control over the conclusion and implementation of international agreements is monitored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Siarhei Housha, Viktar Meziak and Viktar Syrytsa ask it to provide information about the measures by the Republic of Belarus to implement the Committee's Views.