News on the topic: statement
02.06.2020 MEPs deplore "substantial deterioration" in Belarus
"We are deeply concerned about the continued failure of the Belarusian authorities to improve the election environment and their manifest lack of intention to create conditions for a genuine level-playing field between the candidates," said a joint statement by the chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Belarus, MEP Robert Biedroń, and the EP's standing rapporteur on Belarus, MEP Petras Auštrevičius.
01.06.2020 Release Siarhei Tsikhanouski!
We, representatives of Belarusian human rights organizations, call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release Siarhei Tsikhanouski and stop his criminal prosecution.
29.05.2020 MEPs "deeply worried" by nationwide crackdown ahead of Belarus's presidential election
Robert Biedroń and Petras Auštrevičius urge the responsible authorities to "ensure a safe environment for the Presidential election by providing protective personal equipment for election personnel, adjusting the voting facilities to guarantee health and safety of participating citizens and ensuring undisturbed work of the election observers.”
25.05.2020 HRW denounces 'wave of arrests' in Belarus as elections loom
Belarus has intensified its crackdown on independent activists and journalists with a "new wave of arbitrary arrests" ahead of presidential elections, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.
15.05.2020 Key national human rights groups call to end persecution of peaceful protesters, journalists and defenders
In May 2020, the Belarusian authorities began widespread repression against the country’s civil society. More than 120 people were arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to fines and terms of detention across Belarus. The human rights community of Belarus demands an end to the persecution of peaceful demonstrators, human rights activists and journalists and the release of those serving their sentences.
15.05.2020 Belarus: Arbitrary arrest of several environmental rights defenders in Brest
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention of two environmental rights defenders, as well as the arbitrary arrest and judicial harassment of several other environmental rights defenders in the context of the repression of an environmental protest movement against the construction of a battery plant LLC “IPower” in Brest.
14.05.2020 Belarusian authorities must cease attacks on human rights defenders and journalists
Statement of the Human Rights House Foundation. 13 May 2020
13.05.2020 Viasna insists on immediate release of its arrested members
Statement of the Board of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Minsk - May 12, 2020
13.05.2020 Crackdown on Peaceful Protesters Mars Beginning of Presidential Campaign Season
The campaign season for Belarus’ presidential elections, scheduled for August 9, saw sweeping repression against civil society by authorities. Over the past week, authorities arbitrarily detained over 100 peaceful protesters across Belarus, charging them with administrative fines and arrests.
02.05.2020 Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders stands up for jailed Brest activists
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus.
24.04.2020 Viasna calls to suspend administrative detention during COVID-19 pandemic
Under the conditions of the pandemic declared by the World Health Organization, it is incumbent on the Belarusian authorities to take immediate steps to prevent the spread of the virus among the categories of people most at risk of infection: low-income and homeless persons, alcohol abusers and prisoners.
16.04.2020 Human rights defenders call to release political prisoner Pilip Shaurou
Statement by the human rights community of Belarus
03.04.2020 Position of human rights organizations on the arrest and detention of Siarhei Satsuk
On March 25, Siarhei Satsuk, journalist and chief editor of the Internet daily “Ezhednevnik”, was arrested in Minsk. He was remanded in custody on March 26. On March 26 and 27, searches were carried out at Ezhednevnik’s office and in Satsuk’s apartment; office equipment and documents were seized.
14.02.2020 HRDs demand prompt retrial for convicted political prisoners
On February 12, 2020, the Court of the Saviecki district of Minsk sentenced anarchists Mikita Yemialiyanau and Ivan Komar to seven years in prison each for damage to public property (Art. 341 of the Criminal Code), attempted intentional damage to property and intentional damage to property (Part 1 of Art. 14, Part 2 of Art. 218, Part 2 of Art. 218 of the Criminal Code), unlawful actions in respect of items the damaging effect of which is based on the use of combustibles (Part 2 of Art. 295-3 of the Code).
11.02.2020 FIDH slams Russia’s “move to devalue international human rights treaties”
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” has joined an appeal released by the International Federation for Human Rights urging the Russian parliamentarians and the Russian people to vote against the proposed amendments to the country’s Constitution, as they could “effectively legalize the selective implementation of decisions of international treaty bodies”.
