The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for 2 Apr 2015

02.04.2015 Supreme Court: cases concerning execution of death penalty are beyond our jurisdiction

Volha Hrunova, the mother of the executed Homel resident Aliaksandr Hrunou, has received a reply from the Supreme Court to her supervisory appeal. The woman has been trying to achieve a change in the legislation which currently prohibits informing the relatives of the executed about the place of their burial or issue their bodies.

02.04.2015 Why are people dying in temporary detention?

As a rule, employees of temporary detention facilities (TDF), where administrative detainees and those sentenced to administrative arrest are kept, question the detainees about the state of their health with the aim to identify the illnesses and provide emergency medical care.

02.04.2015 Svetlahorsk investigator refuses to see arbitrariness of the local police

“Who am I complaining to?” - that's the question asked to the regional prosecutor by the mother of Aliaksandr Akulich who died in the pre-trial prison of Svetlahorsk District Police Department. Despite the numerous inspections in this case, the contradictions in the testimonies of the police guards, pointed at by human rights defenders and the court, are ignored by the investigator Viachaslau Petachenka.

State earns money on freedom of assembly: Baranavichy public utilities require about 1 mln roubles for cleaning the territory after a picket

02.04.2015 State earns money on freedom of assembly: Baranavichy public utilities require about 1 mln roubles for cleaning the territory after a picket

Baranavichy housing and utilities require a payment of about 1 million Belarusian roubles for cleaning after a picket. It follows from the contract, concluded with this agency by the trade union activist Ryhor Hryk. The agreement says that the cost of the work performed on cleaning-up (three cleaners working for two hours) is determined by the Contractor in accordance with the pricelist and is 971,555 roubles.

02.04.2015 Police again scare residents of Homel region with Romany

Human rights defenders Maryia Klimovich and Ales Yauseyenka have repeatedly raised the problem of discrimination against Roma in the media, where they are often referred to as potential criminals and citizens are warned against contacts with them.

02.04.2015 BLS has prepared a list of arguments about the discrimination of the Belarusian language

The facts gathered by Frantsishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society (BLS) can be safely used in arguments when your opponent asks for evidence that the Belarusian language in Belarus is oppressed.