Report on human rights presented at Human Rights Council of UN
The report was prepared by the
special rapporteur on Belarus, Miklos Haraszti. The
23rd session of the UN Council on Human Rights
opened in Geneva on 27 May
and was attended by
human rights activists from Belarus.
The document recommends
that the Belarusian authorities immediately and unconditionally
release from prison of all political opponents, human rights
defenders and civic activists.
The
special rapporteur, appointed by the UN Human
Rights Council, was
unable to enter
Belarus, as the Belarusian officials
refused to cooperate with him and issue him a
visa.
In April, Miklos Haraszti published his
first report on the situation of human rights in Belarus.
According
to Mr. Haraszti, human rights in Belarus are systematically limited,
especially in the case of freedom of association, assembly and
expression, as well as the right to
proper conduct of the trial and a fair trial. The Special Rapporteur
notes the centralization of the legislative and executive branches
around Lukashenka's team.
Miklos
Haraszti is concerned
about the lack of rule of law in Belarus, in particular with regard
to the procedural safeguards provided for by Article 14 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Numerous
meetings with human rights defenders and victims of human rights
violations reflect a distrust to
the legal system. There
is no confidence that
the legal system can be a guarantor of the rights in situations where
it is contrary to the interests of the authorities.
Eloquent
is the fact that widespread violations of human rights are
overlooked, which is emphasized by the
centralization of the legislative and
executive branches around the Presidential Administration.
Lukashenka's decrees
are used as the main laws, possessing the
supreme juridical authority in the legislative
mechanism of the country.
In the section related
to freedom of association and human rights activists, UN Special
Rapporteur notes that the recently introduced
and planned changes in
the legislation, do not
improve the general situation of
public associations, despite having some positive norms. The Special
Rapporteur draws attention to a
new legal norm, introduced on 24 January 2013,
providing the possibility of liquidation of
institutions and associations if their leaders
are put on the prophylactic register, the
procedure of which remains uncertain and subjective.
He
also highlights the pressure on human rights
organizations, including in the form of the judicial liquidation of
the human rights organization "Platform" and the
confiscation of premises of the Human
Rights Center "Viasna".