IHF: Situation With Human Rights In Belarus Getting Worse :: Charter'97 :: News

The International Helsinki Federation (IHF) for Human Rights with headquarters in Vienna has published an annual report on situation in the sphere of human rights in 38 countries of the OSCE in Europe, Caucasus and North America. The report includes 24 former Communist countries and 13 countries with established democratic systems. 14 pages of the report are dedicated to Belarus, Radio Svaboda informs. Belarus remained one of the worst countries in Europe in terms of respect for the rule of law, democracy and human rights. The government’s record fell short in respect to a number of basic rights. It imposed excessive restrictions on the freedom of expression, association and the media, while violations of the right of peaceful assembly continued. Numerous examples of government policies aimed to suppress the use of the Belarusian language, and discrimination of Belarusian-speakers in daily life are provided in the report. In 2004 the administrative and economic pressure on independent media outlets continued, and many editions were closed.

Conditions in prisons and detention facilities remained poor, amounting in some instances to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Police misconduct continued, including arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment. The Criminal Code and other legislation allowed arbitrary accusations against persons for various offences. As a result, intimidation and manipulation of critically minded public officials also became possible, the preface to the report of the International Helsinki Federation reads.

The document reminds that the parliamentary elections were held on 17 October, together with a referendum, and similarly to previous fraudulent elections and referenda, the October poll fell seriously short of international standards for free and fair elections. . The misuse of public resources to support governmental candidates and the pressure on state employees to “vote right” was characteristic of the elections that took place in Belarus. An unlawful and unconstitutional referendum was held to lift all limits on the tenure of President Lukashenka.

Dispersal of peaceful rallies and detentions of demonstrators, persecution of some religious organizations, discrimination of Belarusian-speakers are also mentioned in the report of the IHF.

The conclusion of the authors of the report is that the situation in the sphere of human rights in Belarus is constantly worsening.