Third Belarusian Human Rights Forum held in Vilnius

The Forum discussed the present situation in the human rights movement, the human rights situation in Belarus and in the former Soviet Union, a possible action strategy of the Belarusian human rights defenders.

At the opening of the Forum, member of “Viasna” human rights centre and the president of the Belarusian Human Rights House Tatsiana Reviaka (left) said that the human rights movement in Belarus is “developing and expanding” “despite the fact that the recent years was the time of trial for Belarusian human rights defenders.

Tatsiana Reviaka noted that the chairman of the Human Rights Centrу “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski, who was one of the initiators of such forums, is now imprisoned, which is “evaluation of his human rights activities by the authorities, challenge to the entire human rights community in Belarus.”

One place in the hall was symbolically reserved for Ales Bialiatski. “Today and always, Ales is with us: in his thoughts, and in his deeds” – said Tatsiana Reviaka.

The participants of the Forum honored with a minute of silence the contribution to the Belarusian human rights movement made by Barys Zvozkau, one of the founders and the first president of the Belarusian Human Rights House, who passed away in 2012.

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, could not attend the Forum, but sent the participants welcoming message, in which he stressed the role of the Belarusian human rights defenders’ work not only in Belarus but also in Europe and in the whole world: “The organizations that labor for human rights, and their members, are the best examples of civic patriotism everywhere. Their work is not simple and not without difficulties anywhere. But this is especially true in the countries, like unfortunately Belarus is at the moment, where their work is made artificially difficult by a system of restrictions, and sometimes made full of sacrifice by repression and cruel and inhumane treatment of the victims of repression.

During the Forum, participants had an opportunity to discuss the problems of the definition and the release of political prisoners, the problem of death penalty, the issues of education in the field of human rights and other important issues in the field of human rights protection relevant at this point. As a result of Forum’s work several resolutions were adopted: on measures for the return of Belarus to implementation of international standards on human rights, on the human rights situation in Belarus and the appeal of the Third Belarusian Human Rights Forum to the Eastern Partnership summit.