News on the topic: human rights
03.02.2020 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: January 2020
During the month, there were new trials of participants in the December protests against the so-called “advanced integration”. In total, according to the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, in January, administrative responsibility under Art. 23.34 of the Administrative Code affected 92 people.
16.01.2020 Human Rights Situation in Belarus in 2019
In spite of a slight decrease in the overall level of repression in the country compared with the previous year, in 2019 Belarus failed to demonstrate any significant systemic changes in the area of civil and political rights, especially at the legislative level, aimed at the qualitative improvement of the human rights situation.
04.01.2020 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: December 2019
The situation with human rights remained poor during the month. There was an overall deterioration of the situation in comparison to previous periods, which is primarily due to an increase in the number of cases of administrative responsibility targeting participants of peaceful assemblies.
03.12.2019 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: November 2019
On November 17, elections of members of the House of Representatives of the 7th convocation were held in Belarus. The only domestic citizen monitoring group, “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”, came to the conclusion that the elections of deputies of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the seventh convocation, in general, did not meet a number of key international standards for democratic and free elections, and the electoral legislation of the Republic of Belarus.
01.11.2019 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: October 2019
On October 25, the court, finding Paliyenka guilty of the alleged act, sentenced him to three years of restricted freedom without imprisonment, reducing the sentence by one year under an amnesty.
18.10.2019 Lack of reforms and contempt for fundamental freedoms in Belarus raise concerns ahead of elections, says UN expert
The overall environment in Belarus remains hostile to dissident opinions and unduly restricts civil and political rights, says UN expert Anaïs Marin.
02.10.2019 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: September 2019
On September 25, the Minsk City Court was to open a closed trial in the criminal case of an activist of the anarchist movement Dzmitry Paliyenka. As a result, the trial was adjourned due to the judge’s illness.
02.09.2019 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: August 2019
During the month, human rights defenders continued to document cases of administrative prosecution of peaceful protesters.
22.08.2019 FIDH: Civil society - not repressive regimes - should discuss inequality at G7
FIDH and 68 of its member organisations around the world are surprised that the Elysée (the French presidency) invited states which are notorious for grave and systematic human rights violations, such as India and Egypt, and met with Russian president Vladimir Putin days before the summit.
01.08.2019 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: July 2019
The human rights situation remained unsatisfactory, without any tangible changes, while in July, as before, there were no cases of administrative imprisonment for political reasons, which generally continues the general trend of the first half of this year.
13.07.2019 UN Human Rights Council renews mandate of Special Rapporteur on Belarus
The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted in favor of a resolution to extend for a period of one year the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus.
03.07.2019 UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus: “Too many issues ignored for too long”
On June 2, Anaïs Marin, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation with human rights in Belarus, presented her first report on the human rights situation in the country at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
02.07.2019 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: June 2019
On June 13, Viasna learned about the execution of Aliaksandr Zhylnikau, who was sentenced to death by a verdict of the Minsk City Court. The fate of the other convict in the same case, Viachaslau Sukharka, who was also sentenced to death, is still unknown, but, given the current practice of enforcing death sentences in Belarus, we can assume that he was also executed.
25.06.2019 Human rights NGOs urge HRC to maintain scrutiny on Belarus
In a letter to member states of the Human Rights Council, HRHF and other international NGOs urge the Council to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Belarus. Further, they set out tangible steps that Belarus can take to address “systemic human rights challenges” in the country.
20.06.2019 Special Rapporteur to brief UN Human Rights Council on situation in Belarus
The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold its forty-first regular session from 24 June to 12 July 2019 in Geneva.
