Rights of BPF activist violated, says UN Human Rights Committee

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has found a violation of the right to peaceful assembly and information in the case of BPF member Siarhei Lazenka. The activist sent his individual communication back in 2008.

Siarhei Lazenka was detained in August 2007 and brought to administrative responsibility for taking part in an unauthorized mass event – a congress of the BPF city office in Brest. 25 more people were detained then, among them politician Pavel Seviarynets, who presented his new book “Letters from the Forest”. Human rights activist Raman Kisliak says that the detainees were taken to the police department of the Maskouski District, the majority of them were fined, while Pavel Seviarynets and Andrei Sharenda were sentenced to administrative arrests.

Siarhei Lazenka challenged his sentence in Belarusian courts, but having received no positive decisions, he appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.