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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.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, will visit Vilnius the 12-13 July 2013 to hold consultations with representatives of Belarusian civil society on the human rights situation in the country.

The Belarusian civic activist Andrei Haidukou was newly convicted of “attempt to establish cooperation with the special service, security service or intelligence service of a foreign state” and sentenced to 1.5 years in prison.