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On 19 January 2011, the Belarusian Human Rights House is hosting a press conference on the human rights situation in the Republic of Belarus. International experts and representatives of human rights organizations from different countries will present their assessment of what is happening in Belarus from the human rights perspective.

The President of PEN International, John Ralston Saul, PEN’s International Secretary, Hori Takeaki, and the Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee, Marian Botsford Fraser, have addressed a letter to President Lukashenko of Republic of Belarus today protesting recent events following the flawed presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus. They urge in the letter immediately to order the release of all arrested writers and journalists.

The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) sent today updated information to the Special Rapporteurs on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders and on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression about the human rights violations that continue in the Republic of Belarus.

According to the Analytical Note prepared by Belarusian and Russian HR defenders from the International Mission for Human Rights Situation Control in the Republic of Belarus, detentions on the presidential election day in Minsk and during the post-election period were characterized by violence, inhuman and degrading treatment, while trial proceedings failed to meet the criteria of a fair trial.

“Pressure on defenders in the Republic of Belarus does not allow them to perform their job”, concludes the Committee of International Control over the Human Rights Situation in the Republic of Belarus in its review. The document offers a systematic compilation of facts of interference in the activitiy of human rights organizations in the Republic of Belarus in the circumstances surrounding the presidential election in the Republic of Belarus.

English PEN calls for the immediate release of all journalists and activists who have been detained in the Republic of Belarus for practising their right to free expression, for the dismissal of all politically-motivated criminal cases, and for a full and proper investigation into the troubling reports of ill-treatment. English PEN calls to take urgent action by writing and sending letters of appeals to Belarusian authorities.

Four candidates for presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus in 2010 – Aliaksei Mikhalevich, Uladzimir Niakliayeu (right), Andrei Sannikov and Mikalai Statkevich – are still in custody along with campaign leaders, relatives and party leaders and activists, Human Rights Center Viasna, partner of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, reports. Several of the prisoners have been severely beaten and in need of medical attention which they are denied.

“An unprecedented wave of violence, intimidation, arrests and prosecution of journalists” – a grim description of situation in the Republic of Belarus after the presidential election by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic. The human rights defenders are doing what they can to oppose the terror campaign towards dissidents and political opponents of the Belarusian government.

„The Belarusian election was severely flawed due to arbitrary use of state power and restrictions on basic rights“, – stated OSCE. Even more saddening was the authorities’ tactics to address opposition’s protests after the closure of polling stations on 19 December evening: hundreds of people were arrested not only on Independence Square in Minsk, but also at their homes and offices, making many recall the notorious year 1937 in the USSR.