International Federation of Human Rights Appeals to UN Commission on Human Rights

According to the press service of the Assembly of NGOs, in the official statement, submitted to the Committee, FIDH expresses its concern with the ongoing harassment of NGOs in Belarus. The statement condemns the presidential decrees that considerably limit the rights of NGOs and the campaign on juridical liquidation of NGOs, contains the list of the NGOs that were liquidated in 2003 with the formal reasons for their liquidation (human rights activity, juridical support to citizens, monitoring of elections).

Besides, FIDH suggests the Commission to urge Belarusian authorities to reopen liquidated NGOs and recognize the role of the human rights defenders in the field of democracy.

We should remind that in March 2004 Human Rights Center “Viasna” (officially liquidated in October 2003) was accepted to FIDH as association member. FIDH is an organization with special consultative status at the Commission and therefore its recommendations are quite significant for the Commission members. That’s why it is quite possible that the final resolution on the situation of human rights in Belarus will contain the urge to renew the legal status of the liquidated NGOs.