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

The website charter97.org announced winners of the National Human Rights Award 2014

Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/30/2014 - 21:00

This year's winners of the Viktar Ivashkevich National Human Rights Award are:

Vasil Parfiankou

The life of Vasil Parfiankou is a demonstration of how dissidents are treated in Belarus. Parfiankou has been jailed three times in the last four years for his active citizenship.

Belarussian political prisoners need European Parliament support

Submitted by admin on Wed, 07/02/2014 - 00:00

Today, on the occasion of the visit of Ales Bialiatski, a recently released political activist and Chairman of the Belarus Human Rights Centre "Viasna", Petras Auštrevičius MEP (Liberal Movement, Lithuania) and Hans Van Baalen MEP (VVD, Netherlands) commented:

Prominent Belarusian Rights Activist Released

Submitted by admin on Sat, 06/21/2014 - 00:00

Prominent Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatski has arrived in Minsk after he was released from prison.

He was welcomed at a Minsk train station by his wife Natalya Pinchuk and a group of supporters on June 21.

Byalyatski told reporters he was released under an amnesty law that came into force on June 21. The rights activist also that the domestic and international support he had received heped in getting him released early.