Tatsiana Reviaka's Top-4 of human rights violations in 2013

The Human Rights Center "Viasna" issued another Review-Chronicle “Situation of Human Rights in Belarus in 2013”.

The author and compiler of the 300-page book Tatsiana Reviaka said in an interview with Radio “Liberty” that 2013 will be remembered for conservation and strengthening of the system of human rights violations:

"If it was made of iron, then it would become rusty in 2013".

"Viasna" has issued chronicles of human rights violations since 1998. We missed just year 2011, which was very hard, particularly because of the arrest of Ales Bialiatski. However, later the tradition of such publications was resumed, and I think this is very important to register the violations. Life goes by, the events are forgotten, and in such a way we contribute to the history of human rights," said Tatsiana Reviaka.

The human rights activist shared her top four violations of human rights in 2013.

1. Political prisoners. There are still prisoners of conscience, who are discriminated for dissent, for disagreeing with official policy. During 2013, Belarus had 11 people serving sentences for political reasons.

2. Death penalty. It makes Belarus a black hole in Europe in respect of human rights.

3. Lack of freedom of expression. It affects a wide range of human rigths violations – media publications, street actions and creation of associations and organizations.

4. Preventive arrests. In 2013, 46 people were subjected to administrative arrest. Some of them were arrested just once, others – 4-5 times. The trend is disappointing, as there are already 31 such people in 2014, though the year has just started. It means that any manifestation of public activity is completely suppressed by the state. Particularly outrageous is that people detained preventively only because the authorities presume that a person can participate in this or that action.

The information about political prisoners, published in the book, describes in detail the violations committed against the vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights and Chairman of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski.

"Ales Bialiatski is Chairman of our organization, and it is clear that it was hard to escape some subjectivity while preparing the book. However, on the other hand Ales' situation serves as an example of what is done to other political prisoners. Ales' situation is unique insoas he is not a politician. Nobody has been treated like him during the whole story of our work. He is kept in a complete isolation, he is prohibited to talk with other prisoners, even to say hello. Thus, his isolation in the penal colony has been turned into “double isolation”. Despite this, he writes many letters and has published the book “Enlightened by Belarusianness,” said Tatsiana Reviaka.