News on the topic: human rights defenders
07.12.2009 Zhodzina: picket for protection of right to learn in mother-tongue
Zhodzina human rights defenders Aliaksei and Sviatlana Lapitskis applied to the local executive committee for authorization of a picket dated to the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, they have little hope that their action will be permitted.
07.12.2009 Homel: authorities ban human rights picket
Homel human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka and member of the BPF Party Anatol Paplauny have applied to Homel city executive committee for the authorization of the picket dated to the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
04.12.2009 Biaroza authoritites ban human rights picket
Biaroza district executive committee prohibited the civil activists Tamara Shchapiotkina and Siarhei Rusetski to hold a picket on 13 December.
02.12.2009 Valiantsin Stefanovich: ‘No referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty, the legislation needs to be amended instead’
‘Legally, no referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty,’ says human rights activist and Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich, commenting President Lukashenka’s recent statement in an interview with the La Stampa newspaper. Lukashenka said that the use of the death penalty is based on the results of the 1996 referendum and that, ‘under the Constitution, only another referendum can reverse its results.’
02.12.2009 Human rights activists submit alternative report to UN
A number of key Belarusian human rights NGOs, including the Human Rights Center Viasna, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the Belarusian Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, have compiled an alternative report on human rights in Belarus to be considered by the UN Human Rights Council.
02.12.2009 Revocation of Article 193-1 still open-ended
Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code may be decriminalized in the near future, says Mr. Huminski, head of the Standing Commission for National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, in reply to a complaint by Brest human rights lawyer Uladzimir Malei.
30.11.2009 Human rights activist forcibly taken to mental hospital
Human rights activist and businessman Viktar Chabatarou has been forcibly taken to Navinki mental hospital by Kalinkavichy police. According to Mr. Chabatarou’s son, the activist was ‘arrested by road police while going to Minsk for an independent psychiatric examination’, initiated by Judge Mrs. Liudmila Savastsianava of Kalinkavichy District Court. None of his family members was informed of the detention.
25.11.2009 Aleh Hulak: ‘The death penalty is a humiliation of people, the right, the present’
Aleh Hulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, has joined the campaign against the death penalty in Belarus. ‘I believe that Belarus must abolish the death penalty. It is savage to allow the state to murder a human being in the XXI century.
20.11.2009 Death convict Andrei Zhuk pleas for mercy
Andrei Zhuk, sentenced to death for alleged murder of two persons, has lodged a plea for mercy with President Lukashenka. This is his last and only chance. Belarusian human rights activists believe that Andrei Zhuk should be pardoned. ‘We, as human rights defenders, call upon the Belarusian authorities to display humanism. Andrei Zhuk’s family have also addressed the President with a plea for mercy. Albeit lacking any legal effect, we do hope their appeal will be taken into consideration by the authorities, too,’ said Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich.
20.11.2009 BHC joins ENEMO
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee has become member of the ENEMO European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations. ENEMO is an association of civil NGOs from 16 Balkan, USSR and SEE countries. These NGOs are the leading organizations in their countries within Election monitoring area. All together, they have monitored over 110 national and international elections and trained over 100,000 observers. BHC is the second Belarusian NGO, after the Human Rights Center Viasna, to join the network.
16.11.2009 Belarusian authorities consider Yuzepchuk’s address to UN illegal
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has received from the state organs of Belarus explanations concerning the individual communication on behalf of the death convict Vasil Yuzepchuk.
16.11.2009 Santa Clauses received answer from Office of Prosecutor General
The General Prosecutor’s Office found the activities of Santa Clauses on New Year’s Eve illegal. The group of Santa Clauses will be brought to responsibility if it will be established that they take systematic part in an unregistered organization, says the letter of the General Prosecutor’s Office.
16.11.2009 Death penalty: news in Vasil Yuzepchuk’s case
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs answered the address of human rights defenders concerning the registration of the death convict Vasil Yuzepchuk’s communication by the UN Human Rights Committee.
12.11.2009 MFA advises Siarhei Housha to address local court organs for implementation of opinion of UN Human Rights Committee
Finally the human rights defender from Baranavichy Siarhei Housha got an answer to his inquiries to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus about who must implement the decisions of the UN Human Rights Committee.
28.10.2009 Viasna issues statement on death sentences to Vasil Yuzepchuk and Andrei Zhuk
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus has considered the appeals by Vasil Yuzepchuk (against the verdict by Brest Regional Court of 29 June 2009) and Andrei Zhuk (against the verdict by Minsk Regional Court of 29 June 2009) and resolved to uphold the decisions, thereby legalizing both the sentences. Belarusian human rights activists have expressed their deep concern over the possible execution of the death penalties. According to the convicts’ legal advisors, the verdict by Brest Regional Court was based on conjectures, resulting from evidence by the police, with no direct proofs at all. Mr. Yuzepchuk was reportedly beaten while in pre-trial prison and the traumas were registered. Apart from that, according to a report by a board of experts, the convict has a light mental deficiency. Therefore, the human rights activists have a strong doubt that the death penalty is too severe and groundless punishment. There are several extenuating circumstances: Andrei Zhuk admitted his guilt, cooperated with the investigators and repented of the offence.
