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

Ales Bialiatski receives reprimands in prison

Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/14/2012 - 20:39

The human rights activist told about the pressure he faced in prison. Ales Bialiatski, imprisoned head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, wrote about it in a letter to human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich: 

Supervisory appeal of Ales Bialiatski turned down

Submitted by admin on Mon, 06/11/2012 - 20:51

As it became known today from a letter of the Head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights Ales Bialiatski to his wife, the chairman of the Minsk City Court dismissed the supervisory complaint filed by the human rights activist and his lawyer against the verdict of the Pershamaiski Dstrict Court of Minsk and the ruling of the panel of judges of the Minsk City Court.

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Belarus

Submitted by admin on Fri, 05/11/2012 - 06:57

Human Rights Council
Twentieth session
Agenda items 2 and 4
Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner 
for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the 
High Commissioner and the Secretary-General
Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention