Tasiana Reviaka drew attention to the issue of pressure on lawyers and the politically motivated persecution of different civil society groups in Belarus during a side event under the title “The Danger of Speaking Out —Recent Trends in the Post-Soviet Space”, organized by IPHR (International Partnership for Human Rights). The event was attended by human rights defenders from Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.
In her speech, Tatsiana Reviaka told about the recent developments in Belarus. She said that earlier this week a court in Minsk dismissed the claim of 12 Belarusian human rights defenders to oblige the Interior Ministry to reduce the term of expulsion for Alena Tankachova, head of the Center for Legal Transformation Lawtrend. A week ago, the Justice Ministry revoked the license of lawyer Hanna Bakhtsina, who defended activists accused in politically motivated cases and cases relating to the protection of human rights. Tatsiana Revyaka in her presentation also spoke about the politically motivated prosecution of representatives of the REP independent trade union and the presence of three political prisoners: a representative of the independent trade union Ihar Komlik, social activist Dzmitry Paliyenka and human rights activist Mikhail Zhamchuzhny.Tatsiana also mentioned the mass protests in the first half of this year on the background of deteriorating economic conditions, which resulted in increased repression against activists, human rights defenders and journalists.
“This year it has been six years since the publication of the report prepared by the OSCE Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus in the framework of the Moscow Mechanism. The report was not only a qualitative analysis of the human rights crisis that began in late 2010, but also included a number of key recommendations to overcome the crisis and aimed at systemic changes that would guarantee the impossibility of a recurrence of such crisis situations,” Reviaka told to the participants of the side event. “Unfortunately, most of the recommendations, both short-term and those aimed at systemic changes, remained unimplemented. The government fully preserved all the repressive instruments that are activated in moments of political expediency.”
The human rights defender noted that the event caused a great interest of the public. It was visited by members of the official delegations of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, who tried to fend off the speakers’ presentations.
The president of the Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House noted that all of the problems mentioned by her colleagues from other countries are also relevant for Belarus. all of the problems mentioned by the colleagues from other countries, relevant for Belarus. ““Yevgeniy Zhovtis of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, spoke about one of the trends: in countries where there is no political opposition (eliminated, marginalized or not yet formed), the government attacks the civil society — activists, human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, independent trade unions. As you can see, this suits Belarus, too,” Tatsiana Reviaka said.
“I also learned that in recent years in Armenia and Moldova the authorities have increased pressure on lawyers who defend people facing politically motivated charges, and cases relating to human rights. There are no cases of deprivation of licenses, which we have seen in Belarus, but in Moldova they even open criminal cases against lawyers. The overall trend in these countries is the identification of lawyers with their clients.”
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