On 14 February the opposition youth movement Young Front organised its traditional St. Valentine’s rally. This year, hundreds of activists from Belarus’s Young Front movement and other youth organizations gathered on Minsk’s Yakub Kolas Square on Saturday afternoon. Despite the fact that the gathering was peaceful, the police and Special Forces from the Ministry of the Interior (OMON) blocked the demonstrators’ way as they tried to march towards Independence Avenue and used force to disperse the gathering, beating many of the activists. Another peaceful rally, organised on 16 February in solidarity with political prisoners and the disappeared people, was also brutally disbanded. 

Although freedom of assembly is provided for under Belarusian law, this freedom is in practice severely restricted. The decisions not to give permission to hold the assemblies of 14 February and 16 February are not in line with Article 21 of the ICCPR and therefore a violation of the freedom of assembly as it is guaranteed in the ICCPR.

In the letter, the signatories urged the Belarusian government not to prevent peaceful actions, meetings and demonstrations, to abstain from the use of force and violence against peaceful demonstrators and, finally, to conduct an investigation into the use of force and violence during the demonstration of February 14 and February 16 in order to bring to justice the initiators and perpetrators.

Click here to read the whole statement.

 

The letter was signed by:

-Human Rights House Foundation (Norway)
-Norwegian Helsinki Committee
-Human Rights House Croatia (on behalf of the following NGOs):
APEO – Association for Promotion of Equal Opportunities for people with Disabilities
CMS – Center for peace Studies Zagreb
Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past
GOLJP – Civic Committee for Human Rights
Svitanje – Association for Protection and Promotion of Mental Health
Women’s Human Rights Group B.a.B.e. – Be active, Be emancipated
-Human Rights House Sarajevo (on behalf of the following NGO’s)
Association of Female Citizens “Renaissance
Foundation CURE
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Regional Co-ordinator for Youth Groups
Serb Civic Council – Movement for Equality – The Council of the Sarajevo Canton Woman and Society Center
-Russian Research Center for Human Rights
-Belarusian Human Rights House in exile (Lithuania)
-Human Rights House Macedonia – Skopje (on behalf of the following NGO’s
Association for Democratic Initiatives (ADI)
The First Children’s Embassy in the World – “Megjashi”
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia
Macedonian Women´s Rights Centre (MWRC) – Shelter Centre 
Polio Plus – Movement Against Disability
-ARTICLE 19 (United Kingdom)
-Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland)
-Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (Azerbaijan)
-WARD (Azerbaijan)
-Helsinki Association (Armenia)
-Human Rights Center (Georgia)

More information about this case

Read more about on the demonstration on St. Valentine’s Day on www.humanrightshouse.org:
Brutal crackdown on the Rally of Love in Minsk.

Other statements on this case:
HR Center Viasna issues statement on brutal dispersal of 14 February peaceful action
FIDH: Use of force by the Belarus security forces against peaceful demonstrators

More information can also be found on www.charter97.org.
Read  
“Liberalization” and “dialog” on St Valentine’s Day in Minsk (Photo)
Footage of brutal crackdown of peaceful rally “Day of Love” by riot militia in Minsk
For more information on the the rally on 16 February:
Brutal disband of solidarity rally in Minsk: dozens of people beaten (Photo, video)