The statement says that the human rights situation in Belarus has deteriorated since the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution at its 17th session (May-June 2011), and the Belarusian government persists with repressive policies against human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and any persons who raise a critical voice or show concern about the human rights situation in Belarus.

The authors of the statement report that, although the Human Rights Council called upon Belarusian authorities to respect freedom of peaceful assembly and to bring relevant legislation into line with its international obligations under human rights law, the Belarusian authorities have adopted even more restrictive measures in that direction .Now, silent protests and simple clapping hands in the streets are punishable by law.

Under the new legislation, adopted in November 2011, organising a demonstration or simply a gathering without prior consent of the authorities is a criminal offence.

In practice, requests to organise peaceful assemblies are constantly turned down and the organizers are at risk of being prosecuted for holding unauthorized meetings and/or distributing any information about them.

The authors state that the Belarusian authorities are gradually increasing the criminalisation of activities of non-governmental organisations. Recent amendments to the Law on Associations prohibit NGOs to have accounts in foreign banks. In addition, these amendments criminalise receiving foreign aid.  

At the same time, human rights NGOs in Belarus are systematically denied registration, which is a precondition for an open and legitimate activities in the country. For instance, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) has been officially warned about the possibility of losing its registration due to its communication sent on 12 January 2011 to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges. In December 2011, the Belarusian Republican LGBT organization was denied registration on the basis of an incorrect date of birth of one of the founders and wrong spelling of 2 out of 61 names of the founders of the organization. For that reason the government considered the information submitted for registration to be inaccurate.

The authors also raised the issue of pressure on lawyers .For example, in 2011, lawyers who were actively engaged in protecting human rights and human rights defenders, have been disbarred, threatened   and were deprived of access to their clients in the Republic of Belarus. Since December 2010, seven Belarusian lawyers engaged in politically motivated cases were disbarred.

The Human Right House Foundation calls upon Belarusian authorities:

 • To immediately and unconditionally release and rehabilitate all political prisoners;

 • To revoke the recent restrictive amendments to the Belarusian legislation further limiting the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, as well as other provisions in the legislation limiting the citizens’ rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly;

• To re-register the Human Rights Centre Viasna, as ordered by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and further let human rights and other civil society organisations fulfil their work without fearing retaliation and to abolish legislation criminalising human rights activities, including article 193.1 of the Criminal Code;

 • To ensure unhampered operations of human rights defenders, journalists, civic activists and their organisations and take measures to safeguard the citizens’ rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly;

 • To respect the independence of the judiciary and to thoroughly investigate and revise sentences against lawyers disbarred since December 2010 presidential elections.

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The Human Rights Council is the inter-governmental human rights body within the UN system, which replaced the Commission on Human Rights. It is a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly. The first meeting of Council was held June 19, 2006.The Human Rights Council, as well as the former Commission, may establish and terminate the so-called special procedures – Special Rapporteurs, experts and working groups on thematic issues of human rights or human rights situation in a particular country. In July 2004 Adrian Severin was appointed to a position of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation with human rights in Belarus. Belarusian authorities refused to cooperate with him. 

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