New human rights group to appear in Belarus
Leanid Sudalenka at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg
A group of human rights defenders has submitted to the Ministry of Justice documents for registration of the National Human Rights Association PAKT (“Covenant”, a movement for the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). The organization’s constituent assembly has elected chairman, Mikhail Pastukhou, vice-chairman, Viktar Karniayenka, and executive director, human rights activist Leanid Sudalenka.
The human rights organization and its activities are expected to contribute to the implementation by the Republic of Belarus of its international obligations on human rights issues. Belarus has one of the highest amounts of communications submitted by its citizens to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The Committee has issued almost 60 decisions on Belarus. It found numerous violations of civil and political rights of citizens of Belarus, but none of these decisions has been fulfilled by the country’s authorities.
According to Leanid Sudalenka, “all the submitted documents have been thoroughly checked by lawyers and experts, including Mikhail Pastukhou and Yury Chavusau. Therefore, in theory, there should be no grounds for refusal of registration. However, it will be interesting to see if the Ministry of Justice refuses to register us, on what grounds it will be, except that the ink in the signatures is not really purple.
The procedure itself has taken no more than five minutes. The answer should be received within a month.
