The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for October 2016

31.10.2016 Report on monitoring of the mass event Dziady in Minsk, October 30, 2016

The commemoration of victims of Soviet repressions (on the national holiday commemorating ancestors called Dziady) took place on October 30, 2016 in Minsk.

29.10.2016 Palchys given non-custodial sentence, released in court

Eduard Palchys, the founder of pro-opposition website 1863x.com, was released in court on Friday after a judge imposed a non-custodial sentence on him.

29.10.2016 UN Special Rapporteur Haraszti notes 'very few positive developments' in Belarus

MIKLÓS HARASZTI, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, discussing his findings, said that while had been only very few positive developments, one of them was the signing of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

27.10.2016 Belarus adopts plan to implement UN recommendations on human rights

The Council of Ministers has adopted an interagency action plan to implement recommendations made within the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), BelaPAN said.

27.10.2016 Women's rights in Belarus on UN agenda

The UN office in Geneva has hosted several meetings of representatives of the Belarusian civil society with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an event that is expected to be followed by the Committee's consideration of the official report of Belarus, scheduled for October 28.

25.10.2016 Interior Ministry confirms entry ban on rights defender Alena Tankachova

Human rights defender Alena Tankachova will not be able to return to Belarus until February 2018, naviny.by said today. The Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to reduce the deportation period without explanation. The human rights activist insists that the case is politically motivated.

21.10.2016 Doctor sentenced to three years over jail death

The Court of Maskoŭski district of Minsk has sentenced Aliaksandr Krylou, employee of a jail hospital in Minsk, to three years of imprisonment in a penal settlement, putting an end to the criminal investigation into the death of Ihar Ptsichkin.

20.10.2016 Authorities to investigate death in Žodzina jail

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the death of Aleh Bahdanau, an inmate of Žodzina jail No. 8, on 29 January 2016.

18.10.2016 Turkmenistan: Dissident’s Brother Dies After Beating

Turkmen authorities should investigate the suspicious death of the brother of an exiled dissident journalist from Turkmenistan, Human Rights Watch said today.

18.10.2016 BBC: The death penalty returns to Europe

"The majority of people are killed by a gun shot to the head and the bodies are never seen again," BBC Outside Source said in a publication on the death penalty in Belarus.

12.10.2016 Russian rights defender Maria Rymar fined USD 1,100

The Court of Minsk’s Kastryčnicki district has sentenced Russian human rights defender Maria Rymar to a fine of 2,100 rubles on charges of “knowingly false reporting about danger” (Part 1 of Article 340

12.10.2016 Activist Dzmitry Paliyenka awarded 2-year suspended sentence, released in courtroom

The court of Centraĺny district of Minsk announced today its verdict in the case of activist Dzmitry Paliyenka, who was charged with beating a traffic policeman during the Critical Mass cycling protest on April 29.

10.10.2016 "Let our actions always be guided by the moral compass of human rights", UN Secretary-General Says on World Day Against Death Penalty

"The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane practice. It has no place in the twenty-first century," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message on the World Day against the Death Penalty, which is observed on October 10.

10.10.2016 Death Penalty in Belarus: Murder on (Un)Lawful Grounds. English version available online

"Death Penalty in Belarus: Murder on (Un)Lawful Grounds", a joint report prepared by the International Federation for Human Rights and the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, is finally available online, after the Russian original has been translated into English.

06.10.2016 CoE deplores confirmation of death sentence against Siarhei Vostrykau

"Yesterday’s decision of the Supreme Court of Belarus to uphold the death verdict for Siarhei Vostrykau is deeply disappointing," the Spokesperson of the Council of Europe's Secretary General said in statement on October 5.