News on the topic: language rights
23.07.2014 Constitutional Court to study gaps in language legislation
The Constitutional Court will address the flaws of the country’s language legislation, says human rights defender Aliaksei Valabuyeu, citing a reply to his petition.
21.07.2014 Salihorsk activists support campaign for protection of Belarusian language
Mikalai Sharavar, chairman of the Salihorsk office of the Frantsysk Skaryna Belarusian Language Society, has sent an appeal to the Constitutional Court against discrimination of the Belarusian language.
14.07.2014 Salihorsk: Belarusian Language Society continues struggling for observance of law "On Geographic Names"
Salihorsk city organization of the "Belarusian Language Society" has filed a second appeal to the State Property Committee demanding to bring the names of signs on the buildings of Salihorsk in line with the Law "On the names of geographical objects."
10.07.2014 Belarusian Language Society ask for return of Belarusian language to legal acts
At the end of June, the Secretariat of the Belarusian Language Society named after Frantsysk Skaryna appealed to the House of Representatives with a proposal to return the Belarusian language to national legislation.
17.06.2014 BHC petitions Constitutional Court to address discrimination of Belarusian language
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the well-known lawyer and human rights defender Hary Pahaniayla sent a petition to the Constitutional Court to highlight the flaws of language-related legislation, which result in the discrimination of one of the official languages, Belarusian.
17.06.2014 Homel human rights defender initiates prosecutor’s probe over language discrimination
Anatol Paplauny, a human rights activist from Homel, asks prosecutor Siarhei Zaitsau Gomel to inspect a local building center named “OMA”, where his complaint in the Belarusian language received a written answer in Russian. The store manager Natallia Urubleuskaya argues that “business correspondence and legal documents should be sent to the population in Russian”.
16.04.2014 Vitsebsk Regional Executive Committee deliberately doesn't use Belarusian language at its website
BPF activist Kanstantsin Smolikau filed an electronic appeal to the Vitsebsk REC, offering this institution to maske a Belarusian-language version for the website. The ideological department gave quite a short response: the website has been and will only be in Russian, since it is not contrary to the law.
14.04.2014 Court dismisses another lawsuit against language discrimination filed by Henadz Loika
April 11, Judge of the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk Alena Siamak dismissed the lawsuit of the Belarusian artist and civic activist Henadz Loika against “Belinvestbank”, ignoring the arguments of the plaintiff and a public representative Valiantsin Stefanovich about the discriminatory approach of the bank to the Belarusian language.
11.04.2014 Henik Loika's lawsuit against KGB turned down
The trial started. It was led by Judge Alena Siamak. Some 5-7 people came to the trial to support Mr. Loika, including the former leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Vintsuk Viachorka. The judge speaks Russian.
14.03.2014 Henik Loika appeals linguistic ignorance of KGB officer
Sculptor and public figure Henik Loika has sued the KGB. The reason was the incident when the officer who was keeping his duty at the reception room of the KGB failed to answer to the visitor in the language of his appeal.
24.02.2014 Sculptor to sue Belinvestbank over Belarusian
Back in 2012, sculptor and teacher Henadz Loika wrote a letter to Belinvestbank asking to open a card account in his native Belarusian language, as he said he did not speak the other official language, Russian. However, his request was rejected.
09.01.2014 Officials see no discrimination of Belarusian language speakers in the legislative process
Human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich has received replies from the authorities to his appeal to the Constitutional Court concerning discrimination of Belarusian-speaking citizens – virtually all the laws in the country are adopted in Russian, there is no official translation of legal acts into Belarusian, the other official language of the country. However, the officials don't regard it as discrimination.
13.12.2013 House of Representatives will not apply to the Constitutional Court concerning discrimination of Belarusian-speaking citizens
At the end of November, human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich applied to the Constitutional Court to determine the compatibility of Article 7 of the Law “On Languages” and Article 54 of the Law “On Normative Legal Acts” with the Constitution. He also applied to the Chamber of Representatives, the Council of the Republic, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Economic Court, the Council of Ministers and the President – all those who have the right to submit inquiries to the Constitutional Court on the conformity of laws with the Constitution.
04.12.2013 State officials continue ignoring the Belarusian language
The deputy head of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) Ihar Barysau received an answer in the Russian language to his complaint about the placement of flags of the Russian Federation on the windshields of buses.
02.12.2013 House of Representatives doesn't distinguish the Belarusian language from Russian
Member of the United Civil Party Viktar Malochka received an answer from the House of Representatives to his complaint concerning a violation of the language legislation by two MPs from the Salihorsk district, Yauhen Abalenski and Taisa Danilevich.
