Human rights activists submit alternative report to UN

A number of key Belarusian human rights NGOs, including the Human Rights Center Viasna, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the Belarusian Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, have compiled an alternative report on human rights in Belarus to be considered by the UN Human Rights Council.
The Belarusian authorities, in their turn, will have to submit a similar report by February 2010. According to human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich, during the preparation of the report the authorities agreed to arrange consultations with NGOs. As for the contents of the report, Mr. Stefanovich said: ‘We highlighted the main problems with the exercise of human rights in Belarus – the freedom of association, together with Article 193-1, the freedom of peaceful assembly, politically-motivated harassment, arbitrary detentions, discrimination, the freedom of speech, the death penalty.’
The report, together with that to be submitted by the authorities, will be considered by the Council, who will then issues recommendations to be implemented by Belarus.