20.05.2009 Independent trade union leader demands reinstatement of fired workers

Mikalai Kanakh, vice-head of the Belarusian Congress of Pro-Dem Trade Unions, says financial assistance to the fired trade union activists is not an adequate remedy to implement the recommendations by the International Labour Organizations, demanding their full reinstatement. At the same time, the trade union leader welcomes the willingness of the government to establish relationships with the independent trade unions and continue cooperating with the ILO. However, Mr.Kanakh is sure no compensation could repair the enormous damage to the Belarusian independent trade union movement caused by the authorities over the past decade.

04.05.2009 Belarusian authorities banned recuperation trips of children to Switzerland

400 Belarusian children from regions contaminated with radiation won’t be able to go for recuperation any more.

29.04.2009 Front Line issues statement on refusal to register human rights organisation Nasha Viasna

Front Line is concerned by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus, on 22 April 2009, to maintain the previous decision of the Ministry of Justice not to register the human rights organisation Nasha Viasna (Our spring). Nasha Viasna is the new name of the human rights centre previously known as Viasna (Spring), which was closed down by the Supreme Court following the demand of the Ministry of Justice on 28 November 2003. The human rights center Viasna is one of the most active Belarusian human rights organisations, specialising in particular in the defence, protection and promotion of political and social rights.

09.04.2009 Statement of Human Rights House Foundation and Norwegian Helsinki Committee on criminal persecution of Leanid Svetsik

The Human Rights House Foundation and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee are concerned about the charges brought against the human rights defender Leanid Svetsik from the Vitebsk region and urge the Belarusian authorities to carry out a transparent and impartial investigation. On 31 March the KGB office in Vitebsk region charged Leanid Svetsik with violating Article 130 (fomentation of national and religious enmity), and Article 367 of the Criminal Code (insulting the honour of the President).

24.03.2009 Amnesty International presents report on death penalty in Minsk

On 24 March the international human rights organization Amnesty International presented its annual report on the use of the death penalty. The report underlines that Belarus is the only European country which still uses the capital punishment. Nicola Duckworth, Director of the AI Program for Europe and Central Asia, stresses that the death penalty is the most inhuman, cruel and degrading form of punishment: ‘There is no room for hanging, beheading, electrocution, lethal injection or lapidating in the 21th century.’

24.03.2009 Minsk City Court ignores UN rulings

The civil panel of Minsk City Court have rejected the complaint lodged by Viktar Karneenka against the decision by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denying the Civil Initiatives movement its rights to legal activity. Thus, Minsk City Court has supported an earlier decision by Minsk Leninski Court, stating that Viktar Karneenka, as head of the Civil Initiatives, cannot be the legal chair of the organization after its liquidation in 2003.

19.03.2009 Amnesty International to launch reports calling for the abolition of the death penalty

On 24 March 2009, Amnesty International will release its global death penalty statistics, looking at how many people were executed or sentenced to death across the world during 2008. On the same day in a separate report, Ending executions in Europe: Towards abolition of the death penalty in Belarus, the human rights organization will call on the last state in Europe and Central Asia that still sentences people to death and executes them to follow the global trend and abolish the death penalty.

09.03.2009 Belarusians in Germany: Cooperation with Lukashenka’s regime is fellowship in crimes

The Union of Belarusians in Germany offers the EU countries to suspend relations with Alexander Lukashenka and demands to punish those responsible for suicide of human rights activist Yana Paliakova.

27.02.2009 Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights issues statement on Nasha Viasna registration

The Sweden-based Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights has addressed the Belarusian Minister of Justice Viktar Halavanau, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sirahei Martynau and Deputy head of the Administration of President Lukashenka with a statement concerning the registration of the Nasha Viasna human rights association.

27.02.2009 Judge orders two issues of cultural magazine seized and destroyed

Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday’s decision by judge Tatsiana Miranyuk of a district court in the western city of Brest to order the immediate seizure and destruction of the seventh and eighth issues of the opposition cultural magazine Arche on the grounds that their content was “extremist”.

“We are again confronted by an absurd logic,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The administrative and judicial harassment of Arche since its creation in 1997 is a sad reminder of what went on under Soviet domination. It does not bode well for the progress in press freedom we had been hoping for. We express our support for the magazine’s founder, Andrei Dynko, and its editor, Valer Bulhakau, and we urge the judicial authorities to reconsider this decision.”

26.02.2009 Javier Solana’s conditions for the Belarusian regime

Belarus will be able to take part in the Eastern Partnership project only if all conditions of the European Union are implemented.

25.02.2009 Swedish Helsinki Committe issues statement on Nasha Viasna registration

The Swedish Helsinki Committe has addressed Ms Natalia Petkevich, First Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus, with an open letter concerning the registration of the Nasha Viasna human rights organization and urging the presidential administration to ensure registration of 'this important human rights organisation.'

24.02.2009 IFJ Calls for Belarus Media Reform as New Law Takes Effect

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called upon the Belarus government to bring in radical reforms to media and to abandon the strategy set out in a divisive new law that came into force on 8 February.

"Belarus media requires invigorating reform, not a new media law that merely turns the screw ever tighter on the independent media," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. The IFJ says that last minute softening of the legislation and the recent return of two independent newspapers to state distribution system do not disguise the harsh reality that "Belarus journalists are the most oppressed in Europe."

The IFJ supports the Belarus Association of Journalists (BAJ), which is calling for reform of the media sector. It says the European Union should make normalisation of relations with Belarus dependent on a genuine commitment to free expression.

23.02.2009 Europarliament delegations says Belarus keeps violating human rights

Lithuanian MEP Laima Liucija Andrikiene, who initiated the visit, told reporters that they had come to see the situation in Belarus with their own eyes. She described the visit as brief, intensive and important.

According to her, within six hours, the delegation met with the ambassadors of EU member countries; Dzmitry Yermalyuk, head of the Belarusian foreign ministry’s European integration department; Uladzimir Serpikaw, director of the ministry’s European cooperation department; Zhanna Litvina, chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists; and opposition leaders, including Vintsuk Vyachorka, Pavel Sevyarynets and former presidential candidates Alyaksandr Milinkevich and Alyaksandr Kazulin.

18.02.2009 PACE delegation meets with independent mass media

‘We would like to see it with our own eyes – whether this is a ‘face-lift’ or a genuine will to move towards progress,’ said Andrea Rigoni, Special rapporteur on Belarus in the Council of Europe’s PACE, during his meeting with independent journalists on 17 February. According to Zhanna Litvina, Chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the meeting was meant for a number of independent Belarusian mass media. The European Parliament members were especially curious if a dialogue could help change the situation in Belarus.