Homel authorities ban rally on May 1

The Homel police and ambulance service refuse to sign contracts with opposition activists, who apply for holding pickets and rallies.

They refer to regulations, under which they can sign contracts only if a mass event is permitted by the city authorities. The city executive committee, for its part, does not allow mass events until contracts with the police and ambulance service are not signed. Homel can mark 10 years in 2014 since the latest opposition picket or rally was officially allowed in the city, Viasna human rights reports.  

The city executive committee usually declined applications for opposition pickets explaining that contracts were not signed with the police,  the utility company and the ambulance service, as the law demands. When Uladzimir Syakerka, the head of the Homel branch of Belarusian Left Party Fair World, tried to make contracts, the police and the ambulance service refused to sign them.

The Homel leftists planned to have a rally on May 1, 2013. The filed an application to the city executive committee in March and made attempts to sign contracts with all necessary agencies. All attempts failed, because the police say a contract cannot be signed until the rally is not permitted by the city authorities. The city authorities don't permit the rally if a contract with the police is not signed. Opposition activists plan to contact the city executive committee for explanations and instructions of how to implement their regulations in practice.

“Restrictions of civil rights are clearly defined by the Constitution and cannot be interpreted loosely. But we see that the decision of the Homel city executive committee cannot be implemented in practice: the special agencies do not sign contracts without permission, but permission is not granted without contracts,” Uladzimir Syakerka says.

He plans to sent a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee after domestic remedies are exhausted.