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UN Special Rapporteur: No Changes In Dismal Human Rights Situation In Belarus

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UN Special Rapporteur: No Changes In Dismal Human Rights Situation In Belarus
MIKLÓS HARASZTI
PHOTO: OSCE/SUSANNA LÖÖF

Despite lifting sanctions from Lukashenka, the regime made no steps towards democracy.

The situation with human rights in Belarus hasn’t changed. Such conclusion is contained in the report of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation in Belarus Miklós Haraszti, which will be presented at the 32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, BelaPAN news agency informs.

The session will take place on June 13 – July 1 in Geneva. The report contains information received by the Special Rapporteur up to March 31, 2016.

In his report, Haraszti points out such positive fact as the release of 6 political prisoners on the eve of the “presidential election” in 2015. Alongside with that, the Rapporteur remains passed about the fact that the political prisoners’ release "was conducted in the same rule-of-thumb style as their imprisonment”. Apart from that, the released were not restored in their civil and political rights.

During the “election” itself, unlike the 2010 election, the authorities refrained from violence against political opponents, and they did not arrest the rival candidates, the Rapporteur notes. However, despite this, the election wasn’t considered by the OSCE as “more trustable than the election of 2010”.

(We remind, upon the observation results, the OSCE criticized, in particular, the counting votes procedure, absence of the common list of voters, absence of representatives of opposition candidates in the elections commissions).

"Therefore, the release of political prisoners on the eve of the “election” without restoration of their right to be nominated as candidates, probably only worsened the atmosphere of fear in which the country is governed for several decades by now. The highly oppressive legal system has only become tougher since 2010, and, at the same time, the authorities have become more brutal in using criminal and administrative punishment systematically against the opponents and critics and all those who express disagreement, even in the most peaceful way", — Haraszti notes.

In the Rapporteur’s opinion, the forthcoming parliamentary elections in 2016 (the elections are planned on September 11) will also be an opportunity for the “President” to attest of his commitment to reform the sphere of regulating human rights.

“The Belarusian ”parliament” remains the only one at the European continent with no even a resemblance of the opposition in it and limits its only function to dutifully stamping the decisions of the "president". This refers to the squads of "parliament" of all convocations for the last 20 years, regardless of whether the opposition was trying to take part in them or boycotted the "election" as a protest against the restrictions”, — stated in the report.

Haraszti also points out that Belarus still applies death penalty which remains "another typical infringement of human rights standards, which differs this state from all the other countries at the European continent.” The report also claims there have been no changes in the “permission-based regime” with regard to freedom of gatherings and associations. "This system lies in the fact that de jure any kind of public activity becomes a criminal offense, without the prior approval of the authorities,” — Haraszti states.

There still remain challenges for the civil society organizations and political parties. "Infringement of the right to freedom of association is due to three main limitations: the rules for registration, widespread failures in the registration and the establishment of criminal liability for unauthorized civilian activities and its financing", - the report says.

Its author notes that although the opposition actions have not been dispersed by the law-enforcement agencies in the last months, the participants thereof have been punished with “disproportionally high administrative fines”.

Haraszti also underlines the facts of violating the freedom of media in Belarus, persecution of journalists, who cooperate with foreign media without accreditation of the Foreign Ministry.

The country lacks a favourable atmosphere for the safe activity of human rights defenders .He sets the examples of the trial against Mikhail Zhamchuzhny, who was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment, persecution of Homel HR defender Leanid Sudalenka, and the ban on entry the country for HR defender Alena Tankachova.

Haraszti also points out that the authorities refuse to provide the human rights defenders access to the penitentiary system. At the same time, there still come messages that tortures are applied in the places of confinement, stated in the report.

The country retained the practice of arbitrary detention of social and political activists, journalists, human rights defenders, there is no progress in investigating the unsolved cases of missing opposition politicians and a journalist Dzmitry Zavadski in 1999-2000, the Rapporteur says.

He remains concerned that the impression of improvement of the human rights situation in Belarus, “made due to insignificant changes” “may mask the absence of political will and readiness to start the imperatively necessary fundamental developments”.

The report contains recommendations for the Belarusian authorities. Haraszti, in particular, recommends the following: to restore all released political prisoners in their civil and political rights; to abolish Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code (responsibility for participation in an unregistered organization); to introduce the principle of notifying the registration of parties and public associations; to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty, to fulfill the OSCE recommendations for improving the electoral legislation; to establish an independent body responsible for the appointment, promotion, suspension and dismissal of judges and prosecutors in accordance with the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary.

The accompanying note to the report of the Secretariat of the OSCE Human Rights Council states: "The collected data show that except for the recent release of political prisoners on the eve of the" presidential elections "in 2015 no other improvements in the situation of deep-seated systemic restrictions on fundamental human rights, which served as a pretext for the establishment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur in 2012, have been reported.”

In connection with the above, the Human Rights Council considers it necessary "to maintain the previously achieved by the UN level of control over Belarus to fulfill its obligations in the field of human rights, particularly in the context of the upcoming "parliamentary" elections” .

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