Information for journalists

On International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2013, a presentation of the alternative report of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights Center "Viasna” "Forced Labour and Pervasive Violations of Workers' Rights in Belarus" will take place in Minsk.

The human rights defenders have recently submitted their report to the UN Committee on the socio-economic and cultural rights.

"In July this year we held a mission to study the economic and social rights in order to tell about the wide use of forced labor and severe economic and social conditions in which many Belarusian citizens have to live. We were able to verify that the remnants of the Soviet system reached yet larger proportions and are now presented simply as a kind of absurd grimace of the regime which claims on the international level to be the last remaining socialist paradise of Europe," briefly outlined the objectives and conclusions of the mission Karime Lahidji, President of FIDH, in his speech at the III Belarusian human rights forum.

We invite journalists and interested parties!

The presentation will include:

Valiantsin Stefanovich, deputy chairman of the Human Rights Center "Viasna";

Pavel Sapelka, lawyer, expert in the field of penal legislation;

Hary Pahaniaila, the head of the legal committee of the republican human rights public association "Belarusian Helsinki Committee";

Aliaksandr Yarashuk, chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions.

The event starts at 11.00 a.m. at the office of the HRC "Viasna": in Miarzhynski Street, 8-26.

Telephone for information: +375 (17) 280-23-11.