PACE rapporteur dismayed by harassment of Viasna human rights centre in Belarus

Submitted by admin on Wed, 11/28/2012 - 15:29

Strasbourg, 21.11.2012 – Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), the rapporteur on Belarus of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has expressed his dismay that the “Viasna” human rights centre in Minsk has been ordered to vacate its office by 27 November, following a year of obscure legal procedures which transferred ownership of the apartment in which the office is located to the state.

“This is yet another blatant disregard of the Parliamentary Assembly’s calls to the authorities of Belarus to stop harassing civil society and human rights defenders,” said Mr Herkel. “Meanwhile, Ales Bialiatski, Viasna’s Chairman and a human rights defender, is still in jail, where he is subject to ill-treatment, despite repeated calls to the authorities to free and rehabilitate all political prisoners in Belarus.”

He continued: “The authorities’ recently-declared intention to renew contacts with the Assembly must necessarily go hand in hand with tangible and verifiable progress in terms of respect for democratic principles and human rights, including respect for human rights defenders and the guarantee of freedom of association.”

PACE’s Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy held a hearing with the participation of Valentin Stefanovich, Viasna’s Vice-President, and other civil society representatives in Strasbourg on 4 October 2012.

http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/NewsManager/EMB_NewsManagerView.asp?ID=8183&L=2

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News of Belarus

Belarus prisoner release: Same old trick

Submitted by admin on Sun, 08/23/2015 - 21:00

Good news from Belarus is rare, but last weekend president Alexander Lukashenko pardoned six political prisoners.

For the pardoned, all serving multi-year prison terms for challenging Belarus’ autocracy, this is, to say the least, a relief, and has been welcomed by local democrats and the international community.

Lukashenko has declared his decision an act of “humanity”. But is, in fact, a carefully timed tactical move to sway the European Union at a time of growing domestic and geopolitical pressure.

The question is whether he will succeed this time.

The International Day of Solidarity with Belarus 2015

Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 13:49

Seven countries around the world celebrated the International Day of Solidarity with Belarus on August the 4th. Human and civil rights activists, as well as other people who are simply sympathetic with the citizens of Belarus and who share deep concern about their future, took part in online discussions, talked to people on the streets and posted various material in social media in order to raise awareness of countless violations of human rights in Belarus.

Solidarity with civil society in Belarus

Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/03/2015 - 21:00

4 August is an international day of solidarity with the civil society of Belarus. This day matters, because of the daily pressure against civil society in Belarus.

When a coalition of international civil society organisations, at the initiative of the International Youth Human Rights Movement of Voronezh (Russian Federation), launched the idea of an international solidarity day with civil society in Belarus, the country was coming out of the 2010 presidential election cycle, which symbolically ended with the arrest of the country’s leading human rights defender Ales Bialiatski.

The 4 August is key to Belarus, because of Ales Bialiatski’s arrest on this day in 2011. The day is now a symbol of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s repeated practice of arbitrary arrest of voices criticising his way of governing the country.