Analytical review No. 4-1 (updated) “An Analytical Review upon Results of the Examination of Evidence from 205 Citizens Detained during the Public Action on December 19th, 2010 in Minsk”

Submitted by admin on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 11:43

The present Analytical Review prepared by the Foundation for Legal Technologies Development, International Observation Mission and Legal Transformation Center is based upon the data gathered from 205 persons over the period from January 3rd, 2011 up to and including January 21st, 2011 in Minsk. The information was gained by means of questionnaires filled in by respondents individually. Respondents were people detained during the public action of the night from December 19th to December 20th, 2010.

205 questionnaires were processed in total, 43 of those were filled in by women and 162 – by men. Respondents were aged from 18 to 61.

The analytical review considers the following issues:

  • violence and other types of brute, cruel and degrading actions of law-enforcement bodies and security forces;
  • violation of human rights and freedoms in the court premises and upon the procedures related to court trials;
  • violation of rights of those administratively arrested while in prison.

General conclusions on the facts stated above and the analysis carried out may be summarized as follows: While arresting the protesters on December 19th, 2010, filing protocols of detainees, their subsequent detention, holding administrative court trials and serving administrative punishment by those persons the authorities of the Republic of Belarus committed acts having a repressive nature, aimed at intimidating the population and being precautionary in relation to public expression of opinions by the people through carrying out mass actions.

Despite of the apparently planned behavior of the law enforcement officers and targeted detention of hundreds of persons, the state did not care about ensuring to those people at least minimum standards of treatment respecting human dignity during detention and subsequent custody, which led to massive violations of human rights and freedoms of the mentioned individuals. These actions are not compatible with the notion of democracy and the rule of law, and flagrantly violate the obligations of the Republic of Belarus in the sphere of human rights.

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News of Belarus

Raman Kisliak applies against inclusion in lawbreakers' database

Submitted by admin on Tue, 11/13/2012 - 20:48

Тhe unlawful inclusion of the human rights defender in this database by the police became the reason for his detention and subsequent fingerprinting on 8 November.

In the appeal, filed by Raman Kisliak t the head of the Leninski District Police Department of Brest, it is stated that the inclusion him in the database of lawbreakers by officers of the Leninski DPD is unlawful, as far as they have neither addressed him in connection with the procedure of dactylography nor presented him any administrative charges lately.

Show solidarity with ARCHE!

Submitted by admin on Tue, 11/06/2012 - 22:33

“ARCHE” is the only thick monthly magazine in the Belarusian language which has been regularly issued since 1998. However, the events that have been taking place since the arrest of it’s the then chief editor Valer Bulhakau can put a cross on the further existence of the edition.

Belarus: PACE committee proposes the nomination of Ales Bialiatski for the 2013 PACE Human Rights Prize

Submitted by admin on Fri, 10/05/2012 - 20:24

Strasbourg, 04.10.2012 – In a statement adopted today in Strasbourg, the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) announced its unanimous decision to support the proposal by Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, to nominate Ales Bialiatski – the human rights defender sentenced on 24 November 2011 to four and a half years’ imprisonment – for the 2013 PACE Human Rights Prize.