Homel human rights defender initiates prosecutor’s probe over language discrimination
Human rights defender Anatol Paplauny outside the Homel Regional Court building
Anatol Paplauny, a human rights activist from Homel, asks prosecutor Siarhei Zaitsau Gomel to inspect a local building center named “OMA”, where his complaint in the Belarusian language received a written answer in Russian. The store manager Natallia Urubleuskaya argues that “business correspondence and legal documents should be sent to the population in Russian”.
Citing legal provisions, the human rights defender says that the answer should have been given in the same language, namely in Belarusian
“The actions of the LLC “OMA”, which failed to provide a response to my complaint in the same language, constitute a violation of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Petitions of Citizens and Legal Persons”, since its Article 18 requires to issue written responses to written requests in the same language,” writes Mr. Paplauny in his letter to the prosecutor.
“Article 26 of the Act establishes responsibility for such violations,” says the defender, asking the prosecutor to launch an investigation into the incident and report on its results. He also requests to bring the officials of LLC "OMA" to administrative responsibility and report on the measures taken in writing.
Article 9.13 of the Administrative Code provides for a fine up to 1.5 million rubles for violating the order of consideration of citizens’ petitions.
