News on the topic: torture
17.08.2020 Interior Ministry pledges to release remaining protesters today. Dozens detainees still missing
The remaining 122 protesters have been released from the detention centers of Belarus, the bulk of them in Žodzina and Brest, the Interior Ministry’s spokesperson said. The list has been published by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Six persons are still being held as part of “ongoing investigations.”
17.08.2020 Viasna insists on criminal charges against security officers amid vast torture evidence
Human rights activists of “Viasna” appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office demanding immediate initiation of a criminal case against law enforcement officers who abused their authority in dispersing peaceful demonstrators.
15.08.2020 UN Secretary-General: Allegations of torture must be thoroughly investigated
UN Secretary-General's Spokesman - on Belarus
14.08.2020 Belarusian human rights organizations urge Interior Minister to stop torture and police abuse
Statement by Belarusian human rights organizations
14.08.2020 Hundreds of protesters released from prisons. Torture reports mount
Several hundred protesters were released from the three detention centers in Minsk and Žodzina last night, while the exact number of them remains unknown. Many of them were taken away in ambulances immediately after leaving the prisons.
13.08.2020 HRDs appeal to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Thematic Special Rapporteurs
Several leading human rights organizations of Belarus have written to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as a number of thematic Special Rapporteurs urging them to take urgent measures in response to the human rights crisis in Belarus.
18.06.2020 Violence, threats, detentions. Human rights activists complain to UN special rapporteurs
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Human Rights Center "Viasna" have written to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and a number of UN thematic rapporteurs asking them to take all appropriate measures to assist in improving the current human rights situation in Belarus and also in securing fair and democratic elections.
23.07.2018 Amnesty International: Iranian in Belarus at risk of imminent deportation, faces death penalty in home country
Iranian citizen Mehrdad Jamshidian, who suffers from acute ill-health, was detained on 14 June in Belarus. He is at imminent risk of deportation to Iran, where he may be subjected to torture and the death penalty for ‘apostasy’ and murder accusations.
01.06.2018 HRDs set to monitor implementation of recommendations by UN Committee against Torture
Representatives of a coalition of human rights organizations, which in late April presented an alternative report to the UN Committee against Torture, have commented on the Concluding observations of the Committee following the 63rd session of the Committee.
27.04.2018 Alternative report presented to UN Committee against Torture
On April 26, a delegation of human rights activists from Belarus presented their alternative report within the 63rd session of the United Nations Committee against Torture.
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.
23.04.2018 Government could demonstrate will for change in fight against torture
On April 20, Pavel Sapelka, lawyer of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", and Aleh Hulak, chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, took part in the expert-level consultations entitled “The practice of interaction with human rights treaty bodies.”
07.04.2018 Human rights activists present alternative report on torture
On April 5, a human rights coalition presented its alternative report on the implementation by Belarus of the UN Convention against Torture.
10.11.2017 Sakharov Freedom Award goes to anti-torture fighters in Russia
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s Sakharov Freedom Award 2017 is awarded to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta and the organization Committee against Torture.
27.06.2017 UN HRC Accepts Complaint on Deadly Torture over Prisoner
Mother of Aliaksandr Akulich, an administrative detainee who died on March 26, 2012 in Svetlahorsk temporary detention facility, has reported to Viasna that on June 12 the UN Human Rights Committee registered the individual complaint on violation of her son’s rights, the document number 2987/2017.
