The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for September 2018

29.09.2018 Anaïs Marin of France appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus

The United Nations Human Rights Council has appointed Anaïs Marin of France as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus. The decision was taken on September 28, the last day of the Council’s 39th session.

28.09.2018 Picks of the week

Investigators continue to interrogate journalists involved in BelTA case; government employees sent to harvest crops in state-owned farms; Georgian woman goes on hunger strike outside prison in Mahilioŭ to protest ban on seeing her husband.

26.09.2018 Invitation to the presentation of an alternative human rights report

The report will be presented on Monday, October 1.

21.09.2018 Picks of the week

On September 20, human rights defender Alena Masliukova was charged with illegal protesting, after she attended a picket in Svietlahorsk, in which environmental activists demanded to close a local pulp mill. Masliukova denies the charge saying that she came to the city’s central square to monitor the protest.

19.09.2018 “They should have shot me instead”: The stories of death row inmates’ family members

In Belarus, you cannot sentence a woman to death — this is the law. But it is women who suffer most from death sentences. Over the 27 years of Belarus’s independence, more than 400 men have been shot in Belarus. Behind each of them, there is the ruined life of at least one woman. We collected the stories of five of them.

14.09.2018 Picks of the week

Authorities still punish people for white-red-white flag; journalists face travel restrictions; Viasna leader opposes Belarus's plans to chair OSCE

13.09.2018 Ales Bialiatski: Belarus will continue systemic repression of social and political activists

On September 13, the Belarusian House in Warsaw organized a round table “Belarus - Repression Behind the “Liberalization” Façade” as part of the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM 2018).

12.09.2018 HDIM 2018: What representatives of Belarusian NGOs told in Warsaw?

On September 12, Warsaw hosted a side event on the current situation of civil and political rights in Belarus. The event entitled “The current situation of civil and political rights in Belarus: first-hand information from inside" was held in the framework of the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM 2018).

11.09.2018 First-hand Information From Inside Belarus: Invitation to a Side-event on 12 September, Warsaw

On 12 September 2018, FIDH shall take part in a side-event that it organises together with Belarusian civil society organisations in the framework of the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM). Speakers will raise issues of the latest attacks on independent media and independent trade unions, developments around the application of death penalty and legislation placing lawyers under the control of the executive.

07.09.2018 Picks of the week

Statistics of administrative persecution in August; REP leaders appeal verdict; journalist in Braslaŭ convicted for eighth time since 2011

06.09.2018 Viasna alerts UN Special Rapporteurs over persecution for solidarity with REP leaders

The Human Rights Center "Viasna" has written to Mr. David Kaye, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, United Nations Special Rapporteur on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, to highlight the sentencing of 11 opposition activists, who staged a protest outside the House of Justice in Minsk on August 24 to demonstrate solidarity with the convicted leaders of the independent trade union REP Henadz Fiadynich and Ihar Komlik.

05.09.2018 Case Belarus v. Henadz Fiadynich and Ihar Komlik. Trial observation report

“Conviction of leaders of independent trade union REP Henadz Fiadynich and Ihar Komlik on tax evasion charges is politically motivated and trial proceedings were marred by procedural irregularities”, concludes the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (an FIDH-OMCT partnership) in a report published on August 30. “The convictions should be overturned on appeal”.

04.09.2018 Human Rights Situation in Belarus: August 2018

The month was marked by a significant deterioration of the human rights situation in Belarus.

03.09.2018 Amnesty International condemns low point for freedom of expression in Belarus

The right to freedom of expression in Belarus has been dealt a series of severe blows in recent weeks, as the authorities’ crusade against journalists and independent media outlets continues. The latest moves by the Belarusian authorities demonstrate their resolve to eliminate all critical voices in the country and deprive people in Belarus of the opportunity to freely access, share and disseminate information and ideas.