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On 31 July, the new name of the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius was approved. Now the official name is the Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House. The name has been changed in honour of the prominent human rights defender, co-founder and the first president of the Belarusian Human Rights House, who has passed away in 2012 after a serious and long illness.

On 4-5 August, at the International Day of Solidarity with Civil Society of Belarus , several actions, dedicated to the second anniversary of the arrest of Ales Bialiatski, well-known Belarusian human rights defender, took place in Vilnius. The activists organized series of information campaigns and actions in the city center and a picket near the Belarusian Embassy in Lithuania.

Once again, we call upon the authorities of the Republic of Belarus to immediately and unconditionally release Ales Bialiatski. He is in detention since 4 August 2011. Since, every independent United Nations body called for his release.

As part of the International Day of Solidarity with the Civil Society of Belarus on 4-5 of August, 2013. Vilnius will host a series of events, dedicated to the anniversary of the arrest of Ales Bialiatski, the prominent Belarusian human rights defender. Ales Bialiatski was sentenced to 4.5 years of imprisonment for the activities in the field o protection of human rights in Belarus.

On 19-21 July the Regional Seminar was held for the Belarusian graduates of the “Electronic Human Rights Education for Lawyers” project in Vilnius, where the graduates of the distance learning course received their diplomas and certificates, and were able to imply their knowledge during the moot court.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus, Miklos Haraszti (right), is not able to visit Belarus and has to hold consultations with the Belarusian human rights defenders and representatives of the civil society in Vilnius. One of such meetings took place in Vilnius on 12-13 July.

One of the winners of the competition, jointly organized by the United Nations Development Programme and the organization Human Rights Laboratory (HuRiLab) which was held in Armenia on 28-29 June was the project «Ease of Access» of a Belarusian Jan Guardian – participant of the project “Bring International Standards Home”

Yegor Mylnikov (right), a lawyer, the graduate of ILIA project, upheld the right to freedom of speech on the Internet and defended Boris Shumilkin, who opposed the construction of the woodworking plant next to his village, in the court. However, Boris Shumilkin himself, who had been stating about the illness of the locals and environmental problems attributed to the construction of the plant, did not get the court’s decision. It was made on the day of his funeral.

The European Parliament has adopted its Recommendation on the EU’s policy towards Belarus reiterating the need for the unconditional release of all political prisoners as a prerequisite for a gradual lifting of EU sanctions and for an upgrade of relations between the European Union and Belarus.