UN Human Rights Committee registers complaint by Homel opposition activists

The UN Human Rights Committee has registered the individual complaint by Homel opposition activists Aliaksandr Protska and Andrei Tolchyn, the BelaPAN news agency reports.

The complaint has also been sent to the Belarusian government for comments.

According to human rights activist Leanid Sudalenka, 18 individual complaints have been submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee by Homel pro-democratic activists. Mr. Sudalenka himself has assisted in drawing up over 50 complaints over the past two years. In two of them, the Committee decided that the activists’ civil rights had been violated.

Aliaksandr Protska and Andrei Tolchyn appeal against the civil charges brought against them for distributing information newsletters in April 2009. Mr. Protska was fined for ‘violating rally procedures’, while Mr. Tolchyn was sentenced to imprisonment.

‘The judges restrained the activists’ rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of information. Homel Regional Court upheld the verdicts. However, its judgment failed to meet the standards of international law. Having exhausted all national remedies, the activists submitted their complaint to the Committee,’ BelaPAN reports.