Brest city executive committee denied sanction for march against enforced disappearance

Brest city executive committee has denied authorization for holding a march against forcible abductions.

It is written in the official answer received by the applicant for holding the rally, a local human rights activist Raman Kislyak.

As BelaPAN has been informed by Kislyak, the document gives reference to the items of the resolution “On mass events in the city of Brest” which read: when mass events are held without participation of the government and administration entities, organisers should attach to the application contracts with police, a health care facility and a public utility company.

“As the practice shows, at court representatives of the city executive committee explain the term “holding of a rally denied” by the fact that it is not prohibition of the event. As long as the law “On mass events in Belarus” orders the head of an executive authority either “to authorize” or “to ban” holding a mass event, this answer is not a relevant answer. There is no such term as “to deny holding the event” in the law, Kislyak said.

He is going to appeal against the answer of Brest city executive committee at Brest regional executive committee and at the prosecutor of the region.

There has been made an application to hold the March against forcible abductions on September 30. The rally was planned to be held from 5 p.m. till 6 p.m. at the pedestrian zone of Kasmanautau Boulevard with the aim to attract attention of the public to the facts of forcible abductions and other violations of the right for freedom and personal inviolability during arrests in Brest.

The organisers of the March also planned to limelight the necessity of signing the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance by the relevant state authorities of Belarus, as an additional guarantee for citizens against these crimes.