News on the topic: human rights defenders
16.12.2010 Amnesty International UK issues a briefing outlining key human rights concerns in Belarus
’The human rights of people in Belarus are routinely abused by the state. Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest are not respected. Human rights defenders are harassed. We have serious concerns about unfair trials and the use of torture in detention. This is all the more worrying because Belarus is the only country in Europe still to retain the death penalty,’ said Amnesty international UK Director Kate Allen.
14.12.2010 Minsk Procuracy: the information of the human rights defender has been noted and will be taken into account during the prosecutorial supervision of the ‘case of anarchists’
The Minsk City Procuracy promised human rights defender Ales Bialiatski to take into account the information submitted by him concerning the criminal cases of activists of anarchist and antifascist movements. However, he had to apply to the prosecutor to make the procuracy answer on the merits of his initial address.
10.12.2010 Human Rights Center Viasna congratulates you on the Human Rights Day!
Dear colleagues, friends, like-minded persons and opponents, visitors of the website of the Human Rights Center Viasna! We congratulate you on the Human Rights Day!
10.12.2010 Detentions on the way to Kastrychnitskaya Square
About 15 activists of the Citizen campaign were detained for a short period of time in Minsk on 10 December. Others managed to walk along Nezalezhnastski Avenue towards Kastrychnitskaya Square with transparencies saying: ‘We have been forbidden to speak loudly!’, ‘We have been forbidden to gather in groups of more than three people’ and ‘We have been forbidden to drink coffee’, reports BelaPAN.
10.12.2010 10 December action of human rights defenders in Minsk
On 10 December human rights defenders and participants of youth movements held an action dedicated to the Human Rights Day. They handed out several thousand copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to residents of Minsk.
10.12.2010 European human rights organizations started collecting signatures under the petition to President of Belarus
On 10 December, the Human Rights Day, the Belarusian Human Rights House in exile in Vilnius in cooperation with other organization declares the beginning of the electronic collection of signatures to the incumbent and to the future President of Belarus at the website http://www.belarus-petition.org.
09.12.2010 Swedish human rights defender Martin Uggla was denied the Belarusian visa
The Belarusian Embassy in Stockholm has once again denied visa to Martin Uggla, Chairperson of the Swedish human rights organization Östgruppen.
08.12.2010 Let's say 'No!' to forced early voting together
Administrative resource is still widely used all regions of the country to secure mass early voting.
07.12.2010 Central Election Commission: car rally for Lukashenka was unlawful, but no one is guilty
The Human rights defender Valiantsin Stefanovich received a response to his complaint, in which he asked the Central Election Commission to bring to justice members of the rally We Are for Father! (i.e. for Lukashenka). As previously reported, the rally started in St Petersburg and was organized by the Russian public associations Slavic Brothers and Autoradioclub.
07.12.2010 Vitsebsk authorities ban human rights picket
The human rights defenders Pavel Levinau and Leanid Svetsik received an answer from the Kastrychnitski District Executive Committee of Vitsebsk concerning their request to authorize their picket on Human Rights Day, 10 December.
06.12.2010 Human rights defender Siarhei Rusetski detained on the Ukrainian border
On 5 December the Belarusian border guards headed by major S.Soika detained Siarhei Rusetski, a human rights defender from Biaroza at the frontier point Khatsislau. At first they checked his passport for a long time. Then they took it away and brought it to their stationery device. After this the human rights defender was set down his train.
03.12.2010 Maladechna: human rights defender Ales Kaputski dismissed from work
On 1 December the human rights defender from Maladechna Ales Kaputski, a long-term observer of the campaign Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections was dismissed from work. The administration of the private enterprise where he worked refused to extend his labor contract without offering any explanations.
01.12.2010 Cities For Life/Cities Against The Death Penalty action held in Minsk for the first time
Activists of the campaign Human Rights Defenders Against Death Penalty and representatives of the Human Rights Center Viasna held the action Cities For Life/Cities Against The Death Penalty in Minsk.
29.11.2010 OSCE calls for closer cooperation with civil societies worldwide
On 29-29 November Astana, Kazakhstan, hosted the OSCE Civil Society Parallel Conference, attended by over 200 NGO representatives from 26 OSCE member countries. The conference is an independent event, initiated by the OSCE members ahead of the 2010 Summit to be held in Astana on 1-2 December.
05.11.2010 Precinct election commissions: ‘discrimination coefficient’ remains the same
On 5
November the civil campaign Human Rights
Defenders for Free Elections held a press-conference on the results of the
formation of precinct election commissions. The results that were announced by
the Chairperson of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak and the lawyer
of the Human Rights Center Viasna Valiantsin
Stefanovich are quite disappointing for those who expect some democratization
of the election process. It was stated that representatives of opposition
structures weren’t included in the commissions five times more often than
representatives of the organizations that are loyal to the present authorities.
‘The coefficient of discrimination’, as Mr. Hulak called it, remains the same
in comparison to the previous election.
