This is just a quick reference to the excellent work of the Oslo-based Human Rights House Foundation and its network over the last 2 months. They continue to call on the OSCE and the Council of Europe to monitor the situation of HRDs and to react against increasing repression against them. The focus is on Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, countries which often stay out of the limelight when it comes to human rights protection.
Posts Tagged ‘Belarus’
Human Rights House and its partners speak out on Human Rights Defenders in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Georgia
November 3, 2011Belarus Side event during Human Rights Council in Geneve
October 6, 2011While on the topic of Belarus I forgot to mention another event: on 20 September, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Oslo-based Human Rights House Foundation held a side event in Geneva on the prosecution of vice-president of the Federation and Chairman of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”, Ales Bialiatski, who was arrested on 4 August 2011. The participants watched a short film about Ales Bialiatski. Later, vice-chairman of “Viasna” Valentin Stefanovich and Director of the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius Anna Gerasimova made a speech.
Representatives of EU countries, the Head of EU mission to the UN Human Rights Council, Dimitris Iliopoulos, and NGOs such as AI all highlighted the political motivation of the criminal case against this prominent human rights defender and called upon the Belarusian authorities to immediately release Mr. .
Belarus: continued refusal to cooperate
October 6, 2011In the ‘series’ crime pays, Belarus is one of the top contenders. On September 30th, 2011 one more HRD, Ukrainian civil society activist Volodymyr Senko, was prevented from crossing the Belarusian state border. He is a member of the All-Ukrainian Youth Public Association “Foundation of Regional Initiatives”. Volodymyr is the 12th representative of the Committee on International Control who has been banned entry to the territory of Belarus.
It should be noted that just the day before, on September 29th, 2011, at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw the Belarusian authorities were once again reminded of the necessity to fulfil the obligations in the field of freedom of movement that they undertook, particularly, not to prevent international human rights observers from entering the territory of Belarus for conducting monitoring of human rights observance. In response to that the representative of the Belarus official delegation de-facto admitted the existence of “black lists” of human rights defenders, who are banned entry to the country, as well as the absence of will of the Belarusian authorities to bring the situation in conformity with the international standards.
The International Observation Mission was created by the Committee on International Control over the Human Rights Situation in Belarus, which brings together representatives of the human rights organisations from the OSCE participating states, as well as international civil society networks and organisations for carrying out monitoring of the general situation with observance of fundamental rights in the Republic of Belarus, as well as the issues of defending human rights defenders and ensuring their professional activities. for more information on this NGO with the rather convoluted name http://hrwatch-by.org/en
The Observatory starts with videos on Human Rights Defenders
June 16, 2011As someone who has always championed the increased use of film images for Human Rights Defenders (one reason to start True Heroes, films for HRDs, in 2006), the reader will understand my joy to share the following announcement:
On June 14, 2011, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), released a series of video testimonies on the situation of human rights defenders in Belarus, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Observatory is – finally ! – developing audio-visual testimonies as a tool to widen the mobilisation and to increase impact on the media and public opinion. This new tool also aims at increasing the awareness of activists, national authorities, national, regional and international institutions and agencies and their mechanisms.
You can see the first series of such testimonies on the situation of human rights defenders in Belarus, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and the DRC by following the links on the website of FIDH and OMCT. For more information please contact:
FIDH: Karine Appy, Arthur Manet: + 33 1 43 55 25 18
OMCT: Delphine Reculeau: + 41 22 809 49 39
Marvelous: Human Rights Defenders in Minsk detained just before detention seminar
May 30, 2011The Belarusian police decided to contribute – rather spontaneously – a hands-on element to a NGO training course on detention conditions:
On Saturday 28 May 2011 seven human rights defenders were detained at the BPF Minsk office, where a seminar on detention conditions was expected to take place. The detainees, including Belarusian Helsinki Committee leader Aleh Hulak, Belarusian human rights defenders Liudmila Isakava and Aliaksandr Sasnou, Russian expert Olga Solomatova, Ukrainian activists Alla Blahaya, Vadim Pivovarov and Oleh Martynenko, were taken to Minsk Savetski District police department. At about 2.30 p.m. all of them were released without charges. However, the defenders were officially warned of possible prosecution for violation of the Belarusian legislation.
Belarus refuses access to human rights monitors
March 20, 2011And to add immediately a second instance in the series ‘response to non-response” here is the case of Belarus as reported by HRW:
On March 17, 2011, Belarusian authorities ordered Andrei Yurov, a leading Russian human rights defender visiting Belarus, to leave the country within 24 hours. He is the second human rights activist the government has banned from the country this month as on March 9, another member of the International Observation Mission, Maxim Kitsyuk, a Ukrainian national, was refused entry at the border while entering Belarus via train from Kyiv.
Both Russia and Ukraine have a no-visa regime with Belarus. Belarusian authorities did not charge Yurov or Kitsyuk with a crime or other offense, nor did they explain the grounds on which they effectively being expelled or would be denied entry to Belarus in the future. For more information see the website of HRW.
