Brest:UN Human Rights Committee recognizes violation of the personal immunity of Zhana Koush
The UN Human Rights Committee has taken
a decision on a complaint filed by a Brest activist of the Movement
"For Freedom", Zhana Koush. The decision states that
Belarus violated her right to freedom and personal immunity by
unlawful detention.
As stated by human rights defender Raman
Kisliak who represents the activist's interests, Zhana Koush applied
to the Committee back in 2008, complaining against being twice
detained in Brest on suspicion in committing a felony (the charges
were subsequently dropped). In the first case she spent 61 hours in
custody before the trial, and in the second case – 72 hours. The
activist believes that detention of a person for more than 48 hours
without delivery to the court violates the right to freedom and
personal immunity, guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights.
"The Committee recognized
violations of the Covenant in the both cases", explained Raman
Kisliak. "It is also worth noting that before that nobody raised
the issue of about violation of the Covenant concerning the detention
terms shorter than 72 hours without delivery to judge. In Zhana
Koush's case the Committee establishes a new UN standard: 61-hour
detention without delivery to court is a violation of the
Covenant."
The human rights defender believes that the
Committee's conclusions on Zhanna Koush's case will inevitably lead
to a review of the legislation on detention and custodial placement
both in Belarus and in other state parties to the Covenant which
haven't yet introduced the maximum 48-hour term for the delivery of
the detained person to court. "The introduction of such norm in
the legislation will become a guarantee against the groundlessly long
detentions of citizens," stated Mr. Kisliak.