News on the topic: national minorities
08.01.2015 Ministry of Information says it has no powers to interfere in professional activities of the media
Homel human rights activists Maryia Klimovich and Ales Yauseyenka have received a response to their appeal to the Information Ministry. The applicants asked the Ministry to inform the editors of state owned media in any way possible about the inadmissibility of indicating the nationality of perpetrators of crimes and consciously shaping the image of a "criminal nation".
16.11.2014 Activists of Union of Poles summoned for questioning
The State Control Committee summons activists of the Union of Poles of Belarus for questioning to receive information about the organisation's financial sources.
31.08.2014 Homel ideology officials advise local newspaper to refrain from anti-Roma discrimination
Homel human rights defenders Ales Yauseyenka and Maryia Klimovich have received a response to their petition to the Main Directorate of Ideological Work, Culture and Youth Affairs of the Homel Regional Executive Committee.
21.08.2014 Police justify discrimination against Roma in media by crime prevention
On August 20, Homel human rights defenders Ales Yauseyenka and Maryia Klimovich received a reply to their complaint submitted to the police department of the Homel regional executive committee about the discrimination of Roma in the media.
13.08.2014 Homel human rights activists apply to regional executive committee and police department concerning anti-Roma publications in press
Homel human rights defenders Maryia Klimovich and Ales Yauseyenka applied to the main department of ideological work of Homel Regional Executive Committee and Homel Regional Police Department in connection with the anti-Roma publications in the newspaper of the Kastrychnitski District Police Department of Homel “Chyrvony Kastrychnik”.
28.07.2014 Police in Aktsiabrski ask people to be alert to Roma
The newspaper “Chyrvony Kastrychnik” in Aktsiabrski district, Homel region, has published an article where local police urge citizens to be vigilant against the Romani people, warning them that they often target elderly people as victims of their crimes.
09.04.2014 Homel human rights defenders make a gift to school on International Romani Day
On the International Romani Day, April 8, Maryia Klimovich and Ales Yauseyenka sent a gift to Prybory secondary school where many Romani children learn.
27.02.2014 Homel human rights activist fighting to save Roma family
Maryia Klimovich (Bahdanovich), an activist of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, received a response from the Department of Education, Sports and Tourism of the Homel Regional Executive Committee. The activist urged the head of the department, Iryna Bahdanets, to assist in reviewing the decision to terminate the parental rights of Liubou Makarava, a representative of the local Roma community.
12.11.2013 Foreigners taken to a forest near Kurapaty, beaten and threatened
The victims, Azerbaijan, Tajik and Armenian nationals, reported about mass violence by men in civilian clothes, who seized, beat and intimidated them.
20.09.2013 Baranavichy Ukrainian minority NGO sues officials over office
Civil society activist Mikalai Charnavus lodged yesterday a complaint with the Court of Baranavichy district and the city of Baranavichy to challenge the actions by head of the executive committee’s economy department Mrs. Raisa Ulasovich.
18.06.2013 Valiantsin Stefanovich petitions head of state TV company over discrimination of death convict
On June 1, the state-run TV channel “Belarus-1” in showed in a program “Secrets of Investigation” a story which told about the murder in Mahiliou prison. In this story, which told the audience about the circumstances of the murder committed by Ryhor Yuzepchuk and his accomplice, who killed their cellmate, in the context of the negative characteristics of the person that repeatedly stated his nationality.
24.05.2013 Davyd-Haradok police raid Roma community
The raid is described by the local pro-government weekly. The newspaper “Naviny Palessia” (“News of Palesse”) posted an article entitled “Gypsies are not asleep - and you do not sleep!”, in which it emphasized that “persons of the Roma ethnic group are rightly considered as unreliable people: to become rich at the expense of others is a “good” tradition for some of them.
17.05.2013 Editor of state-owned newspaper in Mazyr warned over humiliation of Roma
Deputy Chairman of the executive committee of Mazyr district issued a warning to the editor-in-chief of the local government-run newspaper “Zhytssio Palessia” over repeated publications humiliating the Roma community.
08.04.2013 Homel: human rights defenders ask Education Minister to include works of Roma in the school curriculum
Homel human rights defenders Maryia Klimovich and Ales Yauseyenka filed a letter to the Education Minister Siarhei Maskevich, asking him to include in the school curriculum poems and novels.
04.04.2013 Mazyr police continue discriminating Roma
It is quite interesting whether officers of Mazyr District Police Department have ever read the Constitution or have heard the expression "prohibition of adverse discrimination", including on the grounds of nationality. Probably they have not, as such articles as "Don't Surrender to Roma Tricks" keep appearing in the district state-owned newspaper "Zhyttsio Palessia".
