The Belarusian Human Rights House, the Human Rights House Kyiv and the Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) organised jointly meetings on media space and human rights in the Republic of Belarus, to which they invited the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus.

The opening of the event was attended by Amund Johansen, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Norway in Ukraine, as well as Vladimir Neronski from the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Ukraine. The organisers welcomed the presence of a representative of Belarus at the opening of the meeting on media space and human rights on Monday 18 February 2013.

Meeting with the Special Rapporteur on Belarus in Kyiv, 18-20 February 2013 (© Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law-Enforcement)The Chairperson of the Human Rights House Kyiv and leader of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Arkadiy Bushchenko explained in the opening of the meeting that the reason of establishing a Human Rights House in Kyiv is not only about Ukrainian NGOs but also to create more solidarity between human rights defenders regionally and increase the attention about the human rights situation in Eastern Europe.

Florian Irminger, HRHF’s Head of Advocacy and Geneva Office, mentioned that these meetings are organised in order to “provide first hand information for the Special Rapporteur who is to gather information independently.” HRHF aims at inviting the Special Rapporteur to its activities when relevant and indeed thinks that even if the Special Rapporteur is not allowed inside the country he can thereby receive credible, independent and useful information about the situation in the country.

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