UN is requested to take urgent measures in connection with the possible expulsion of Yelena Tonkacheva

Belarusian human rights organizations appealed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, as well as to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus with a request to urgently intervene.

In their statement they indicate that this is not the first case Yelena Tonkacheva is pressurized in connection with her human rights activities. Fellow human rights activists consider unacceptablesuch actions of the state unacceptable, when human rights activities of citizens and organizations are impeded with the use of restriction of individual rights and freedoms. Such actions are contrary to the state of Art. 6 and Art. 12 of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Art. 12, 17, 19, 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and political Rights.

The urgent use of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council is provided for cases requiring an immediate reaction of Special Rapporteurs to serious pressure on human rights activists in a particular country. This procedure is used very seldom.