The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for June 2015

11.06.2015 Political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok is pressurized through incarceration

Pressurization of Mikalai Dziadok in penal colony No. 9 in Horki increases. On June 9 he received the seventh penalty since his transfer to the colony – ten days in the punishment cell for refusing to work.

11.06.2015 Amnesty International recognizes Yury Rubtsou prisoner of conscience

The international human rights organization Amnesty International launches an urgent action in support of Mr. Rubtsou.

11.06.2015 Journalists detained in a polyclinic

June 10, two journalists, BAJ members Arkadz Nestsiarenka and Nastassia Khralovich were detained in a polyclinic where they were taking interviews from old people queuing up for medical services.

10.06.2015 Riot policemen stop divine service in Homieĺ, believers are summoned to police station

Believers of the church "Praabražennie" (“Transfiguration”) in Homieĺ are summoned to the police department for questioning and getting official charges. Neither the believers nor the pastor of the church, Siarhei Mikalayenka, know about the reasons for such actions of the police.

10.06.2015 Human rights Humanitarian Mission in Ukraine: Number of refugees is growing, there is shortage of humanitarian aid

Volunteers of the Human Rights Humanitarian Mission in the Ukraine and the volunteer organization "Station Kharkiv" urge community organizations and activists to join the campaign to help the displaced from the area of the anti-terrorist operation in the Ukraine.

10.06.2015 Political prisoner Prakapenka earns 50,000 rubles a month

June 8-9, political prisoner Artsiom Prakapenko had a long-term meeting with his parents. In fact, it lasted less than a day - from 3 p.m. to 11 a.m. the following day.

10.06.2015 Minsk authorities ban BCD assembly in Svaboda Square

The leaders of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party have received an answer to their application to Minsk City Executive Committee for holding the constitutive assembly of the BCD at 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. on June 13, 2015 in Svaboda Square in Minsk. According to the deputy head of Minsk CEC Ihar Karpenka, “it is intended to hold another mass event since May 2 until September 13 on the territory of Svaboda Square”.

10.06.2015 Record fine for freedom of expression

Homieĺ journalist Natallia Kryvashei has been sentenced to a fine of 9 mln Belarusian rubles for shooting in a video, shown at the satellite TV channel “BelSat”.

10.06.2015 Azerbaijan is following steps of Belarusian regime

The closure of the OSCE office in Baku, the ban on entry into the country of foreign journalists and international human rights defenders - the latest news from Azerbaijan remind the "inhospitable" policy of Lukashenka during the elections of 2010 and last year's World Hockey Championship.

10.06.2015 HR activists-volunteers are impressed with unity, solidarity and non-indifference of Kharkiv citizens

Aliaksei Kolchyn and Marharyta Vialichkina, human rights activists who participate in the "Human Rights Humanitarian Mission in Ukraine" as volunteers, assisting the displaced from the combat zone in Kharkiv, share their observations and reflections on the situation in the city and the eternal problem of “war and peace”, speaking about the anxieties and hopes of ordinary Ukrainians.

10.06.2015 Viktar Trattsiakou about “Six Arguments against Death Penalty” (video)

Producer of documentary movies Viktar Trattsiakou has recently finished another video clip, presenting the fifth argument against the death penalty.

10.06.2015 Political activist twice denied employment

After an attempt to find a job through the employment center in Mikaševičy Vital Kalinouski, a member of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) is convinced that the authorities will label political and civic activists as “social parasites”.

10.06.2015 Sentence on "Cosmetics bag" case still not executed

A judge of Minsk City Court has finally decided to watch the video recorded by Russia's Embassy in Minsk.

10.06.2015 Strike at plant in Maladzechna

Workers refused to work at the metalwork plant in Maladzechna.

09.06.2015 Belarusian human rights activists in Kharkiv: writing appeals, working on hot-line, working as loaders

The Human Rights Humanitarian Mission in the Ukraine, launched by the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, started on June 4. During the five days of its work the volunteers, human rights defenders Zmitser Salauyou, Aliaksei Kolchyn and Marharyta Vialichkina helped to hundreds of refugees from Eastern Ukraine.