News on the topic: international organizations
02.12.2009 Human rights activists submit alternative report to UN
A number of key Belarusian human rights NGOs, including the Human Rights Center Viasna, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the Belarusian Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, have compiled an alternative report on human rights in Belarus to be considered by the UN Human Rights Council.
02.12.2009 Jean-Louis Laurens: ‘The abolition of the death penalty requires the political will of the country’s leaders’
‘Of course, the Special Guest status is very important, but its absence is not an obstacle to the cooperation between the Council of Europe and Belarus in various fields,’ said Jean-Louis Laurens, Council of Europe's Director General of Democracy and Political Affairs, during his visit to Minsk, six months after PACE named the abolition of or the declaration of a moratorium on the death penalty as the key condition for the restoration of the country’s Special Guest status in the Council of Europe.
25.11.2009 Smarhon resident submits complaint to UN Human Rights Committee
Viktar Kavaleuski from the town of Smarhon, Hrodna region, has submitted an individual complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, claiming that he was illegally forced to pay membership fee to an organization, while he was not its member, www.smargonbel.byhost.org reports.
23.11.2009 Brest activists submit complaints to UN Human Rights Committee
Three Brest activists Iryna Laurouskaya, Raman Kisliak and Dzianis Turchyniak have submitted their individual complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee. The activists claim that their rights to free expression and peaceful assembly have been violated. They also say they have faced discrimination due to their beliefs and abuses of judicial procedures, naming it an outrage against their right to a fair trial.
20.11.2009 BHC joins ENEMO
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee has become member of the ENEMO European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations. ENEMO is an association of civil NGOs from 16 Balkan, USSR and SEE countries. These NGOs are the leading organizations in their countries within Election monitoring area. All together, they have monitored over 110 national and international elections and trained over 100,000 observers. BHC is the second Belarusian NGO, after the Human Rights Center Viasna, to join the network.
18.11.2009 Authorities ignore complaint by family of missing person
16 November was the deadline for the Belarusian authorities to provide their comments on the complaint submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee by the family of the disappeared Anatol Krasouski. The complaint submitted by Iryna and Valerya Krasouskis was registered by the Committee on 16 November 2008, its copy being sent to the respondent, www.ciwr.org reports. The Belarusian authorities were initially to respond to the complaint by 16 May 2009. However, they demanded translating the document in Russian, instead, and thus received 6 more months for providing their comments. As yet, there is no reply to the complaint.
06.11.2009 Christos Pourgourides not let in Belarus
The PACE deputy Christos Pourgourides was invited to the Belarusian European Forum held on 14 November in Minsk.
29.10.2009 Mother of capitally convicted person addresses UN Human Rights Committee with complaint
The mother of Andrei Zhuk, who was sentenced to death for alleged murder of two persons in February 2009, has submitted an individual complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee, claiming that in the course of the investigation and the trial, a number of provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were violated, namely the right to life, the right to freedom of torture, the right to individual liberty and personal immunity and the right to a fair trial. The woman also calls upon the Committee to immediately address Belarus, as a party to the Covenant, with a demand to suspend executing the death sentence before the consideration of the case on the merits.
28.10.2009 No changes on gender front
The World Economic Forum has released its annual Global Gender Gap Report, placing Belarus 34th (as compared to the 33th rank last year) among 115 countries covered in the report. The Report examines four critical areas of inequality between men and women in 130 economies around the globe, over 92% of the world’s population: 1. Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment 2. Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education 3. Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures 4. Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio
27.10.2009 FIDH Representative addresses UN Special Rapporteur on Torture regarding repressions in Belarus
Julie Gromellon, FIDH Representative in Geneva, has addressed Manfred NOWAK, Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, with an appeal regarding individual cases of ill-treatment in Belarus / harsh repression of protests in Belarus. The high FIDH official condemns cases of recent violent repression of peaceful protesters in Belarus, quoting letters sent by the victims. Here is the full text of the appeal.
20.10.2009 Belarus leaps 4 positions in Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index
The Reporters without Borders international organization has issued its annual index of freedom of the press, placing Belarus 151st out of 175 countries. ‘Indicators point to a deterioration in the press freedom situation in almost all of the former Soviet Republics except Georgia (81st) and, to a lesser extent, Belarus (151st), whose government has initiated a cautious and so far limited improvement in its relations with the press as part of a renewed dialogue with the EU. It is hard at this stage to predict whether this ripple on the surface will swell or fade away’, says the report.
20.10.2009 UN Human Rights Committee registers complaint by activist Halina Yubko
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee has registered an individual complaint submitted by Minsk resident Halina Yubko, the Nasha Niva newspaper reports. In her interview with the BelaPAN news agency, Mrs.Yubko said that on 19 January 2007 she applied for holding a picket to Minsk city authorities. She, together with 50 other women from all over the country, was going to express her dissent to the conviction judgments awarded to their relatives for civil and criminal offences. The picket was meant to attract public and governmental attention to the issue of violating Constitutional rights and international treaties while considering criminal and civil cases.
16.10.2009 Foreign Ministry ignores conclusions by UN HR Committee
Baranavichy human rights activist Siarhei Housha has received a reply to his inquiry lodged with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, urging the officials to provide explanations for the Ministry’s non-compliance with the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee of 27 July 2007, ordering the Belarusian authorities to rehabilitate Mr.Housha’s right to the freedom of association, as one of the founders of the Viasna human rights center, closed down by order of court in 2003.
13.10.2009 Information on torture of participants of peaceful actions passed to international organizations
The Human Rights Center Viasna collected information about the facts of tortures and inhuman treatment of the detained participants of the peaceful actions held on 9 and 16 September 2009. The lawyers also prepared 6 complaints to the Tsentralny district prosecutor’s office of Minsk against the unlawful police actions and questioned some eyewitnesses of the tortures.
13.10.2009 Death convict Yuzepchuk has some hope again
On 12 October 2009 the UN Human Rights Committee registered the individual address of Vasil Yuzepchuk, sentenced to death by Brest oblast court, under number 1906/2009. The appropriate information was received from Geneva office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights by the human rights defender Raman Kisliak.
