Pervasive Harassment of Civil Society Continues in Belarus

Pervasive Harassment of Civil Society Continues in Belarus, Warns UN Rights Expert

NEW YORK / GENEVA (28 October 2014) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, today reported to the UN General Assembly that NGOs and human rights defenders continue to endure extreme political pressure in the country, and that civic activities outside the official framework are criminalized.

“In breach of the country’s international human rights commitments, legislation and practice in Belarus purposefully paralyse the exercise of citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and to inclusive participation in public life,” he stressed.

“In the past two decades, there has been a pattern of mass-scale pressure and harassment against civil society actors in Belarus involving recurring violence, in particular during or in the immediate aftermath of elections,” Mr. Haraszti warned during the presentation of his new report* on the state of civil rights in the country.

More than 600 persons were detained and dozens of civil society activists, journalists, politicians and their supporters were arrested, faced trial or were sentenced to prison terms after the last presidential ballot in 2010, the report notes.

He noted that, despite some recent positive amendments to the law on public associations and on political parties, the rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression remain severely restricted.

Mr. Haraszti describes how the framework hampering civil society activism is propped up by an overly restrictive permission-based system of registration, the selective denial of registration, and the criminalisation of activities of unregistered associations. NGOs are also denied the right to receive direct funding from foreign sources and unauthorized foreign funding is criminalised.

“Also, rights activists, including LGBT defenders, have to endure constant intimidation and political pressure from the authorities. They are subjected to excessive and arbitrary administrative inspections, charged with minor administrative transgressions such as ‘public swearing’ or ‘hooliganism’, and publicly discredited by the State-run media,” he said. “Systematic defamation of NGOs and human rights defenders contributes to their stigmatization and marginalization and significantly curtails civil society activism.”

The Special Rapporteur noted a recent increase of repeated short-term arbitrary detentions. As an example, he named Pavel Vinogradov, a youth NGO activist who was arrested on 13 October, for the fifteenth time. Over the course of this year, he has spent until now altogether sixty days in prison.

While welcoming the release of Ales Bialiatski, leader of the Viasna human rights organization (which continues to be denied registration), the Special Rapporteur called for the immediate and unconditional release and rehabilitation of all political, including the former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkievitch.

Mr. Haraszti urged the Government of Belarus to repeal the laws criminalising unregistered public activities, and to allow NGOs to receive funding in line with international law. He also called on the authorities to guarantee that all human rights defenders can exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association without being subjected to fabricated charges, threats or use of violence, harassment, and discrimination.

(*) Check the full report by the Special Rapporteur (A/69/307): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/newyork/Pages/HRreportstothe69thsessionGA.aspx

ENDS

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