News on the topic: video
30.11.2021 Viasna wins Marion Dönhoff Prize
The Human Rights Center “Viasna”, together with politician and lawyer Gerhart Baum, won the German Marion Dönhoff Prize for “international understanding and reconciliation,” ZEIT publishing group said.
10.10.2021 EU urges Belarus to move towards death penalty abolition
Video address by Dirk Schuebel, head of the EU Delegation to Belarus, on the occasion of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty
08.10.2021 Swiss ambassador Claude Altermatt: "The trend towards worldwide abolition of the capital punishment is continuing"
On the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Switzerland reaffirms its strong commitment to support this trend, to safeguard any achieved progress.
10.10.2018 Treatment of death row prisoners in Belarus
While on death row, convicts face a number of violations of their rights. During their one monthly visit with a family member (a right accorded under Article 174 of the Criminal Law Enforcement Code), they are forbidden from referring to detention conditions.
19.06.2018 Legacy of Dark Days: Protesters penalized for honoring victims of Stalinist repression
The video created by the Human Rights Center "Viasna" highlights the stories of two activists from Minsk, 80-year-old Anton Vusovich and 66-year-old Vera Vakulovich. They were among a few dozen people who gathered on October 29, 2017 outside the KGB building in Minsk to participate in a memorial picket called Chain of Memory.
25.04.2018 HRDs to present alternative report at 63rd session of the UN Committee against Torture
On 27 April, the Republic of Belarus will present its report on the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment at the 63rd session of the UN Committee against Torture. Since the ratification of the Convention in 1987, the country has reported to the Committee for five times.
05.10.2017 Viasna to join World Coalition against the Death Penalty
Joining forces with supporters of the global abolitionist movement is another step of the Belarusian human rights defenders towards ending the death penalty in the country. At the same time, Belarus is marked on the world map as a place where death sentences are often imposed on representatives of the most vulnerable groups.
19.09.2017 Belarus in focus at OSCE event on the death penalty
Amnesty International and FIDH continue to raise the issue of the death penalty at international fora, as another thematic event has been held within the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw. The side event involved human rights activists from Belarus, one of the two OSCE countries that still execute death convicts.
22.06.2016 Miklós Haraszti again calls on Belarus to engage with UN Special Rapporteur mandate (video)
The oppressive government has not changed since the establishment of the mandate after the brutal crackdown on the post-election protest in December 2010, UN Special Rapporteur Miklós Haraszti said yesterday during the presentation of his forth Report on the situation of human rights in Belarus.
23.03.2016 Kitchen TV: The issue of the death penalty in the US
The issue of the death penalty in the United States is of particular interest for the Belarusian human rights defenders, since the US is often cited as an argument for the retention of the death penalty in Belarus.
10.02.2016 A Heart That Never Dies available online (video)
A film about human rights defender Ales Bialiatski from the documentary series A Heart That Never Dies by filmmakers Erling Borgen of Norway and Tom Heinemann of Denmark is available online.
23.10.2015 Kitchen TV. New wave of migration: A challenge for Europe (video)
Do people living in Central and Western Europe equally perceive the situation with an increase in the number of refugees? What is the difference between the approaches to the refugee problem? The questions are answered in the new issue of the human rights video project Kitchen TV by vice-head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Valiantsin Stefanovich and a Dutch journalist Franka Hummels.
26.05.2015 Minsk court convicts two opposition activists (video)
The Court of Minsk’s Centraĺny district heard today the administrative cases of opposition activists Volha Nikalaichyk and Katsiaryna Sadouskaya.
26.05.2015 Torture of death convict’s relatives: Fifth argument against the death penalty (video)
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has repeatedly said that the procedure of executing death verdicts in Belarus has signs of torture and inhuman treatment, both in relation to the executed person and his relatives.
07.05.2015 Valiantsin Stefanovich: It is worth reminding the Ministry of Justice about the position of the UNHRC regarding the non-registration of "Viasna"
In her speech in Geneva at the UPR procedure for Belarus, the representative of the Ministry of Justice Hanna Shpak stated that some groups are capitalizing on their status of unregistered public associations for political reasons. Deputy Head of Human Rights Center "Viasna" Valiantsin Stefanovich, who was present at that meeting, decided that it was worth reminding the officials of the Ministry of Justice about the history of the organization's non-registration.
