During the last session of the project the atmosphere of joy and friendship, cheerful spirit of competition and responsible attitude to work towards defense of the dignity of the individual and society prevailed in the House.  The heroes of this article are the graduates of the project.

Uladzimir Bukshtynau 

After graduating from the Law Faculty of the Belarusian State University majoring in “Jurisprudence”, he worked as investigator and prosecutor in the Prosecutor’s Office, including the Prosecutor General’s Office. During the trial of Uladzimir Niakliayeu, the candidate for president of Belarus, he was his lawyer.Now a senior Counselor (colonel) in Justice 61-year-old Uladzimir Bukshtynau is retired.  

n U. B. The concept of human rights was gained through much suffering, endless wars, terrible consequences of repression and genocide.It is generally accepted that the largest armed conflicts usually begin with something supposedly small – human rights violations. The so-called “new order” in Nazi Germany began with the prohibition of political parties, repressions against the Jews and Gypsies and implementation of the theory of the superiority of the Aryan race. And all these human rights violations have led to the Second World War, with its Holocaust, concentration camps and gas chambers. All these disasters made Europe and America understand the value of the individual and his rights as the highest. In all constitutions people are declared the main value, and the state exists for them.

However, in Belarus, unfortunately, human rights are not cultivated, as the state is not interested in implementing them, and often replaces the human rights with social and economic rights of consumers. Officials like to talk about free education and medicine, that people are fed, clothed and shod. However, human rights – are, first of all, civil and political rights of individuals such as freedom from torture, to a fair trial, freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of association, the right to elect and be elected in free elections, the right to freely receive and spread information, the right to appeal,   right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, and also the equality before the law.Unfortunately, these rights lies within the interests of the political elite of the country, as the development and maintenance of these rights constitutes a threat to the existing political system. That is why the authorities are trying to suppress these fundamental human rights.

With this in mind, a two-year educational project, in which lawyers and other professionals get familiar with the basics of human rights and legal achievements of world legal culture, is working for the future. There is need to educate the younger generation of lawyers and other professionals with an understanding of the significance of human rights in protection of dignity of the individual and society. I believe that due to the extremely high level of teaching, the project has fulfilled its mission. I wish our successors to deeply absorb what is being taught as such unique knowledge in the field of human rights cannot be received anywhere else in Belarus. And we need to bring up the national Belarusian law to the highest international standards. Only then we will become a full-fledged Europeans.  

Volha Treputsen 

Volha has been in the structures of the third sector since 2003.First she worked in the charity organization, then she was helping children with disabilities, and now she works as a lawyer in the unique entity Office for the rights of persons with disabilities which is an educational and human rights organization. Each one of more than 520 million Belarusians, registered as people with disabilities (with sensory and locomotion disabilities, general and mental   diseases, as well as other disabilities) may use the services of the office in case of violation of their rights under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), which, unfortunately, has not been yet ratified by Belarus.Most visitors of the office are interested in questions of independent living of individuals with disabilities and access to justice, as well as adequate standard of living and social protection, including pensions and benefits. In this case, visitors prefer specialists of the office to lawyers, as the first ones work in an independent charity structure, providing consultations free of charge and with individual approach to each person.  

n O.T. The educational process in the framework of the project allowed me to see the human rights system from a different perspective – from the point of view of international standards.I have learned new algorithm for solving different legal issues using international mechanisms, and this strengthened my argumentation in the appeals. Also, I realized that the work with clients on their cases is not completed by the decisions of the Supreme Court and the General Prosecutor’s Office. The acquired knowledge give hope for a positive result of the work even in the specific work conditions of Belarus. All the topics that were taught during the studies were well-designed, systematic and comprehensive. The topic of non-pecuniary damage was of great interest for me personally, as ithas practical value in my work. Our office is working with legal clinics, so we will share new knowledge with future lawyers. I look forward to establishing cooperation with colleagues from this project, including activities to complete the electronic library with project materials on the most successful experience of domestic human rights defenders. I wish success to all my colleagues in the legal sphere.  

Alena Lutskovich

Lives in Palessie region town- township Akciabrsky in Homel region. She graduated as an economist-manager. She worked at the private enterprise. Because of the participation in the local elections, which were held this year, the authorities forced Alena to leave work. The head of the “Young Democrats”, youth organization of the United Civil Party in Homel region, cooperates with human rights defenders of the Homel center of strategic litigation. Alena organizes educational meetings with young people, and uses international mechanisms for defending the freedom of peaceful assembly in the courts against the Akciabrsky Executive Committee.  

n A.L. My participation in the project allowed me to use international standards of human rights in preparation for litigation, appeals and applications for supervisory review more efficiently.After the authorities forced me to quit my job, I decided to devote all my efforts to the protection of human rights. All the more I have relevant experience and knowledge. Moreover, the dismissal did not affect my civic position. The officials could not intimidate me. On the contrary, I will be even more active in civil and human rights activities.  

Viktar Stukau 

Worker at JSC “Polotsk-steklovolokno”, worked as an operator for the production of glass for 30 years, graduated from the European Humanities University, majoring in International law to have possibility to better defend the rights of his colleagues. As an activist of the Free Trade Union of Belarus he is a head of the community in his enterprise. 

n V.S. Participation in the educational project allowed me to learn more deeply some of the methods of defending labor rights, including the question how to prepare collective appeals to the Constitutional Court on the issue of discrimination on the enterprise.However, I have noticed the fact that so far not a single complaint of a violation of an individual right of workers to form trade unions was lodged to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations from Belarus. The fact is that we submitted a complaint to the International Labour Organization on this issue. This organization sent Belarusian government several recommendations 10 years ago, and yet some of those has not been fulfilled.  In addition, the participation in the project gave me knowledge how to apply international legal standards in the domestic courts.

One should bear in mind, that working conditions in our company do not improve, but even getting worse due to the depreciation of equipment, lack of funds, as well as due to the fact that the employer refuses to organize collective negotiations with our trade union. This position is explained by the fact that our trade union numbers only one per cent of all employees. However, there are little people just because they can be persecuted for joining the Free Trade Union.

What do we do? We write appeals, spread legal information, including via the newsletter “Stekliashka” (The Glass) and our website, teach colleagues to defend their rights, along with three lawyers – EHU graduates of International law program, workers who had previously worked in the enterprise. We also represent the interests of members of our community during their individual labor disputes in the courts.

Despite discrimination, our community was able to gain a number of concessions from the state and the employer. We are talking about a permanent salary growth, the creation of the factory system of drinking water, as well as the upgrading of the ventilation system in the shop №7. In addition, the community helps its members to solve the problems of civil and family law.

Thanks to improved legal culture of the community members, they creatively defend their interests. For instance, since in the conditions of the contract system one can not be lawfully resign, community members simply leave work without an Then are later fired for absenteeism, and then through the courts we seek to address this issue by mutual agreement of the parties. .

Kastus Mardvintsau

Originally he is from the village of Lapichy, Asipovichy district, Mahiliou region, by education – an engineer -mathematician and theologian. At the age of 10 the boy moved to Chelyabinsk, because his father –   a missile officer had been transferred to serve in Russia.However, Kastus always dreamed of returning to Belarus.It was the life in Russia that drew him to Belarusianness, as he understood well – Belarus is not Russia, where he felt ill at ease. Although Kastus believed that in Russia, he spoke Russian, the locals did not understand him, because the boy spoke trasianka (Belarusian-Russian mix). Craving for his homeland was so strong that in the second half of the 1980s, the young man began to read the works of Belarusian classics, including Uladzimir Karatkevich, subscribed to “Zviazda”, “Chyrvonaya Zmena” and “LiM” became a regular listener of the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty, as its signal was less jammed over the Urals than over Belarus. Despite the fact that the young man never learned his native language in school, three years before returning to his homeland, he started to speak Belarusian constantly. Now Kastus lives in Vitsebsk and cooperates with regional human rights website “Vitebskaya viasna.” 

n K.M. Participation in the educational project was very useful, especially considering the fact that I write on the human rights theme myself.If you write something, you must know the object yourself, otherwise your work will be of poor quality and unprofessional. Participation in the project allowed to systematize that basic knowledge in the field of human rights, that each of us has. Besides the lawyers there were other professionals involved in various human rights project. That is why, it would be better to train students in sections. In addition, in my opinion, the main language of the educational process should be the Belarusian language and the second language – Russian, taking into account the fact that the project involves foreign experts that do not have good knowledge of the Belarusian language. I consider all those who participated in the project lucky, as in the wonderful atmosphere of goodwill, we met with different people and made ​​new like-minded friends among the students and the experts.  

Vasil Yurevich

His early life was not easy. Vasil’s father died at the age of 28, when Vasil was only six years old. Brought up in the streets, the boy did things which   he later was ashamed of.Life has lost all interest. He was saved from despair by protestant church “New Life”. It was the faith in God that has radically changed the fate of a young man. He began to build his life according to the Bible and the traditions of his ancestors. On his grandfather side Vasil is a direct relative of the poet Adam Mickiewicz. Vasil was educated as a technician-mechanic in consumer industry and a lawyer.  He lives in Minsk. Now, 45-year-old Vasil Yurevich is self-employed and engages in trust management of legal entities. He is raising four sons, all of whom are learn well and are interested in programming, driving a car, play sports and music. 

n V.Yu. When I came to the Full Gospel Church “New Life”, I was fortunate to serve there for 14 years as a chief administrator and solve a variety of administrative and economic issues.Moreover, at a time the Church was put under a lot of pressure from the government in the form of endless arbitrary issues and fines. For instance, I personally was fined an amount equivalent to 6.5 thousand US dollars. All this testifies to the fact that Belarus does not have enough of the democratic atmosphere of loyalty that exists for believers in foreign countries. That’s why I meaningly became a member of the educational project, in order to then, together with like-minded people, start the movement to change the national legislation in the field of human rights – freedom of speech, assembly and religion.

Research Project Manager Aleh Aheyeu

Born in Slutsk. When he was 5 years old   his parents moved to Minsk.He comes from a family of lawyers. After graduating from the Military Academy, young artillery officer served in Asipovichy and received a second degree, now in Law in the Belarusian Institute of Law. He worked as a lawyer for eight years. He was elected a member of the “rebel”Presidium of the Minsk City Bar Association, which called for the democratization of the national advocacy system. Under the leadership of Barys Zvozskau, he ​​passed the second cycle of the educational project. After the 2010 presidential election he was defending presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich in court. He was disbarred for his civic position by the decision of the Ministry of Justice.Since 2012 he has been the research manager of the project. 

n A.A. This is my first and the largest by number graduated class of the project, and I am very proud of it.Among the 34 graduates of all ages (from 23 to 61) from all regions of the country – students from Belarus, who studies at home and abroad, lawyers, environmental lawyers, human rights defenders from the capital and the regions, journalists, academics and former lawyers. What is the most impressive? Together with experts of the project, the graduates create a team of associates who are ready in time of need to protect the dignity of the individual and society. Secondly, we give graduates the unique knowledge and skills, which none of the domestic universities provide. Finally, the project participants deeply felt the value of human rights and, I hope, will be more motivated to protect them.

Marat Haravy

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