Prosecutor General will have to answer whether courts rightly refused to consider complaints of human rights defender

Baranavichy human rights activist Siarhei Housha sent to the Prosecutor General of Belarus a supervisory appeal against the refusals of the court of first instance and the appeal court to consider his lawsuits concerning the failure of the Republic of Belarus to pay him a compensation for moral damages, as required by a decision of the UN Human Rights Committee.

As we previously reported, on 23 April the Prosecutor's Office returned Siarhei Housha the supervisory appeal he had filed on 2 April, demanding that he should attach copies of the decisions of the courts of the first instance and the appeal instance, certified by the courts, as required by Article 438, part 7 of the Civil Process Code of the Republic of Belarus.

Before this, the human rights activist had gone from Baranavichy to Minsk to get the certified copies of the necessary documents and attach them to the supervisory appeal, which he filed to the Minsk City Prosecutor's Office, and a copy – to the Office of the Prosecutor General. However, the latter agency evaded from considering the appeal citing the aforementioned legal requirements as the reason. The civic activists went to Minsk once again, in order to obtain the necessary documents and to bring his case to a logical conclusion.

Now the repeated supervisory appeal of the human rights activist should meet the expectations of the General Prosecutor's Office.

The essence of Housha's complaint is that he demanded that the state pay him a compensation for the moral damages due to the fact that the Republic of Belarus failed to implement the Opinion of the UN Human Rights Council of 27 July 2007 according to which it was to have restored the registration of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", which was illegally closed by the authorities, as a result of which human rights activist Siarhei Housha, one of its founders, is still deprived of the opportunity to engage in social activities, by which moral damage is done to him.

Siarhei Housha filed an appeal against the refusal of the Republic of Belarus to implement the decision of interstate body to the UN Human Rights Committee, and also decided to apply to the prosecutor's office in order to receive a legal estimation of the situation from the supervisory authority.

In his repeated supervisory appeal Siarhei Housha asks Prosecutor General to demand from the Maskouski District Court of Minsk the case concerning his claim for compensation for moral harm, dated 14 May 2010, to verify the legality and validity of the court rulings: the ruling of the Maskouski District Court dated 31 May 2010, and the ruling of the panel of judges on civic cases of the Minsk City Court dated 5 August 2010, in which the courts refuse to consider his appeals as the cases are allegedly outside their jurisdiction. He asks the prosecutor to issue a supervisory protest against these rulings for their abolishment, so that his case would be considered in line with the Constitution and the international legal acts, ratified by the Republic of Belarus.