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Belarusian authorities have begun preparations for the parliamentary elections campaign 2008 beforehand by liquidation and suspension of the political parties. For the last two months the Ministry of Justice has given warnings to six political parties. While the activity of the Party of Communists of Republic of Belarus was suspended for six months by the Supreme Court, the Labour Party was liquidated and the women’s party ‘Nadzeya’ faces liquidation. (06-SEP-07)
 

The founders of the public human rights association ‘Viasna’ have finally received an official letter from the Ministry of Justice ‘On refusal of state registration for the public association’. The Ministry lists five reasons why Viasna´s request to be registered has been refused. Viasna comments, giving their interpretation of why the organisation has been denied registration. (29-AUG-07)
 

Following Belarusian authorities’ liquidation of the Human Rights Center Viasna in October 2003, members of the organisation appealed sent an appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee in April 2004, suggesting that the liquidation was illegal and asking the UN committee for its opinion. After careful consideration, the UN responded earlier this month with unconditional support. Belarusian authorities have violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (16-AUG-07)
 

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) expresses its deepest concern regarding a wave of arbitrary arrests and subsequent detentions of several opposition members in the run-up of the Belarus «State Sovereignty Day», which took place on 27 July. (01-AUG-07)
  

On 23 July 2007 an initiative group of human rights activists applied to the Ministry of Justice for registration of the human rights public association Viasna. In the time when the authorities liquidate many NGOs and refuse to register new ones , a group of Belarusian human rights activists decided to unite their forces and try getting a state registration.(24-JULY-07)
 

Freedom House published its regular report about the situation with the freedom of the press. “Of the 195 countries and territories examined in the survey, three of the 10 worst press freedom abusers — Republic of Belarus, Republic of Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan — are found in the former Soviet Union”, the report says. (25-JUNE-07)
 

The committee consists of representatives of oppositional parties, NGOs and other public movements and was established simultaneously with the session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Its activity will be oriented on restoration of the victims’ rights and compensation of the material and moral harm done to them. (12-JUN-07)
 

According to the International Center of Investigation of Prisons at London King´s College, Republic of Belarus possesses one of the highest ratings on number of prisoners in Europe: 426 per 100 thousand population. Prisons are overcrowded, have extremely low sanitary level and there are serious threats to prisoners’ security including cases of physical violence and sexual abuse. (04-JUN-07)
 

On May 29, 2007 Belarusian court announced verdict to the members of unregistered organization Young Front. 5 young people were under the threat of being convinced for 2 years of prison. The judge fined Zmicer Hvedaruk, Aliaksei Yanushevski, Aleg Korban and Baris Garecki and imposed the court warning to Nasta Palazhanka. Belarusian democratic society together with the international human rights movement made every effort not to let Republic of Belarus have more prisoners of conscience. (30-MAY-07)