Baranavichy activists ask how the authorities will implement Views of UN Human Rights Committee
On 7 June human rights
defenders and social activists Siarhei Housha, Viktar Meziaka and
Viktar Syrytsa filed an appeal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in
which they asked to be provided with information on measures taken by
Belarus to implement the pinions of the UN Committee on Human Rights,
set out on 27 July 2012.
At the end of December 2012 they
received a 12-page response from the Human Rights Committee which
stated that the facts which were presented to it witness a violation
by Belarus of articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights. The complaint of the democratic activists
to the UN concerned the ban on the rally "For Free, Independent
and Prosperous Belarus" they intended to hold in Baranavichy on
10 September 2006. On 4 September 2006 Baranavichy City Executive
Committee didn't allow Siarhei Housha, Viktar Meziak and Viktar
Syrytsa to hold the rally, as a meeting on the same topic had already
taken place in the premises of the City Executive Committee on 15
March 2006. The ban was challenged in the court of the district and
the city of Baranavichy and then at the panel of judges on civil
cases of the Brest Regional Court, after which an appeal was filed to
the head of the Supreme Court of Belarus. However, all these
complaints were dismissed. Thus, the activists exhausted all
available domestic remedies in an attempt to exercise their right to
peaceful assembly as guaranteed by Article 35 of the
Constitution.
Human Rights Committee, the UN recommended that
Belarus revise their national legislation and practice of its
application in line with Art. 19 and 21 of the Covenant. In addition,
the Committee requested the Republic of Belarus to print the above
mentioned opinions and disseminate them widely in the state in
Belarusian and Russian languages (paragraph 12 Opinion).
Being
guided by the fact that according to Art. 35 of the Law "On
International Treaties of the Republic of Belarus", control over
the conclusion and implementation of international agreements is
monitored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Siarhei Housha, Viktar
Meziak and Viktar Syrytsa ask it to provide information about the
measures by the Republic of Belarus to implement the Committee's
Views.