Call upon Belarus to take urgent measures to meet international human rights standards

To: Mr. Alexander Lukashenko
President of the Republic of Belarus

Vilnius, Lithuania

Call upon Belarus to Take Urgent Measures to Meet International Human Rights Standards

We, the participants of the 2010 Human Rights House Network (HRHN) Annual Meeting, express our deep concern about serious and systematic human rights violations in Belarus. Belarus continues to ignore its international legal human rights obligations.

· Belarus fails to secure the rights and freedoms of its citizens, as safeguarded by the international treaties it is a party to. The country’s existing legislation contains excessive restrictions making it highly problematic to exercise these rights and freedoms;

· More than 11 years after the disappearances and suspicious deaths of well-known public and political figures and/or journalists, no impartial and transparent investigation has been conducted;

· Opponents of the regime are subjected to criminal and administrative prosecution and the country’s prisons hold a number of political prisoners;

· Belarus remains the only country in Europe and the post-Soviet region where the death sentence is still used;

· The government retains an effective monopoly on information and upholds harshly discriminatory practices against independent mass media and journalists. The President’s Decree #60 Regarding Measures to Improve the Use of the National Segment of the Internet constitutes a considerable threat to the right to obtain and spread information;

· The right to freedom of assembly and association is not respected, as underlined by the UN Human Rights Commissioner for Human Rights at the 15th session of the Human Rights Council. The government continues to close down existing NGOs and deny registration to emerging NGOs, while activities of unregistered NGOs ones are punishable under the Criminal Law (Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code). 17 persons have been found guilty of violating this article in the period of 2006-2009;

· Obstacles are created for the activities of human rights NGOs, since many of them have been judicially deprived of their official status in recent years and forced to continue their work under the risk of criminal prosecution. Human rights defenders are exposed to constant pressure and intimidation as well as criminal and administrative prosecution.

· Belarus has repeatedly failed to submit periodic reports on a number of key United Nations (UN) conventions and covenants. It has refused to cooperate with Special Rapporteurs, ignored their recommendations and rejected most recommendations addressing pressing human rights concerns, voiced by the UN Human Rights Council at the Universal Periodical Review. Belarusian authorities have also dismissed decisions by the UN Human Rights Committee following individual communications.

We would like to acknowledge a positive development. We welcome the human rights dialogue between the Belarusian government and the European Union (EU). However, we are deeply disappointed with the failure on the part of Belarus to meet preliminary EU requirements to include the country in the Eastern Partnership program. Belarus has ignored the requirements to: 1) hold no political prisoners; 2) ensure the freedom of media; 3) maintain the cooperation with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on electoral legislation reform; 4) improve conditions for NGOs’ activities; 5) secure the right to freedom of assembly and political associations.

We, therefore, call upon the government of the Republic of Belarus:

· To release political prisoners, restore the rights of those punished on the grounds of their political opinions or public activism, and reinstate the expelled students and the dismissed public and political figures;

· To conduct full, independent and impartial investigations of all disappearances and suspicious deaths of public figures during the last 11 years; and identify and prosecute the perpetrators;

· To urgently exclude the use of capital punishment from the national legislation;

· To abandon the effective monopoly of information, ensure freedom of expression, and refrain from using restrictive measures against independent media and freedom of expression, particularly the Internet regulations of 2010;

· To repeal Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code, which provides for the imprisonment of up to two years for those individuals who undertake activities on behalf of unregistered NGOs, political parties or foundations;

· To abide by their human rights obligations by reconsidering its approach and take all necessary measures to meet the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council and the decisions of the UN Human Rights Committee;

Finally, we underline the need to run the upcoming presidential campaign and election in a free, fair and competitive environment in accordance with the national law and the OSCE criteria for elections, rather than in the usual atmosphere of fear and repressions.

Participants of the 2010 Human Rights House Network (HRHN) Annual Meeting

The Human Rights House Network is a forum of cooperation between established and emerging Human Rights Houses, uniting 70 NGOs in 15 countries. HRHN´s aim is to protect, strengthen and support human rights defenders and their organisations.