UN confirmed violations of rights of Belarusian oppositionist
The Human Rights Committee established a fact of violation of the right of democratic activist Valery Lukyanchyk to be elected to the “house of representatives” at the “elections” on October 17, 2004.
Conclusions on the complaint published on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights allow making such a statement, BelaPAN learnt from human rights activist Raman Kislyak.
According to him the decision was taken on October 21, 2009, at the latest session of the Human Rights Committee.
According to the human rights defender, Valery Lukyanchyk, a dweller of Kokhanava (the Talachyn district, Vitsebsk region), applied to the Committee on April 7, 2005, in relation to a refusal to register an initiative group to collect signatures for proposing him as a MP candidate.
On August 11, 2004, Lukyanchyk applied for the district electoral commission of the Talachyn electoral district for registration of a 64-member initiative group. On August 13, he received a notice of refusal to register on a ground of violation of the Electoral Code: two persons were included in the group without their permission, about which they informed the district electoral commission.
The democratic activist said that was an insufficient ground for denying registration for the initiative group. In particular, the Electoral Code requires an initiative group should have at least 1o members, but there more than 60 people in his group.
Before applying to the Human Rights Committee, Lukyanchyk appealed against the denial of registration in all appropriate Belarusian instances, but lost processes.
“It was not the only case of refusals to register initiative groups during electoral campaign in our country. The fact the UN Human Rights Committee admitted violation of article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights can facilitate settling the problem. The elections to the local council will show if this happens this year,” the human rights activist said.
