UN Human Rights Committee rules on violation of rights of four Brest residents
The UN Human Rights Committee recognized the violation of the rights of representatives of the democratic community of Brest concerning the freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.
A complaint was submitted to the Committee by four residents of the city (Iryna Laurouskaya, Dzianis Turchaniak, Valery Faminski and Raman Kisliak). According to human rights activist Raman Kisliak, the reason for applying to the UN Human Rights Committee was that the local authorities banned pickets on various issues related to the installation of a monument to the 1000th anniversary of Brest.
"Those protests were banned on the grounds that the city had but one authorized place for picketing – the stadium Lakamatyu. But we were trying to organize pickets in Gogol Street, next to the place where it was planned to erect the monument," says the human rights defender.
All attempts to appeal the actions of the Belarusian authorities in Brest courts failed, and in late 2009 the complaint was submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee. Raman Kisliak believes that the decision of the Committee is a step towards elimination of a common problem for all cities of Belarus, bans imposed on pickets by local authorities.
