Results of the Third Belarusian Human Rights Forum

Valiantsin Stefanovich sums up the results of the Forum, Aleh Hulak presents the results of the survey and an appeal urging Minsk to have full-scale participation in EaP is adopted.

Activists taking part in the Third Belarusian Human Rights Forum, which took place in Vilnius on October 26 and 27, called on delegations to next month’s Eastern Partnership summit to take efforts to encourage the Belarusian government to remove obstacles to the country’s full-scale participation in the European Union’s program.

As BelaPAN reports, an appeal adopted on October 27 said that involvement in the Eastern Partnership drew countries closer to European standards of living, but the “program does not fully realize its potential for improving the human rights situation in Europe’s East.”

Belarus’ human rights record has been worsening, and the presence of political prisoners and flagrant human rights abuse make the country’s real and fruitful participation in the Eastern Partnership “impossible,” said the rights activists.

However, they said, steps need to be made to encourage the Belarusian authorities to improve the human rights situation and, above all, release the political prisoners and restore their rights.

The implementation of the European Union’s European Dialogue for Modernization with Belarus is key to the country’s progress toward reforms and EU standards, according to the appeal.

Let us recall that the Eastern Partnership summit will take place in Vilnius on November 28 and 29. In mid-October, the Lithuanian foreign ministry handed invitations to attend the event to diplomats representing the six non-EU countries involved in the program, including Belarus. However, the invitations are addressed to the countries in general and not to specific people.

Valiantsin Stefanovich, deputy head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna", gave a speech at the event on the human rights developments in Belarus since the previous Forum in 2010.

Valiantsin Stefanovich recalled the general context against which the 2nd Forum of the Belarusian human rights defenders was held in September 2010, saying that “the period between 2008 and 2010, marked by a decrease in the overall level of political repression and certain changes of the authorities’ rhetoric, has been labelled by many as the period of “liberalization”. “It should be noted, however, that we have not seen any systemic changes, especially at the legislative level, over the period. Changes that could indicate a serious intention of the authorities to change domestic policy and the conduct of liberal political reforms in the country. However, the overall context gave some hope for, although slow, but improving of the situation. A hope for a gradual, slow drifting of Belarus towards Europe and the possible transformation to at least manageable model of democracy in the future”, - emphasized the deputy of HRC “Viasna”.

Human rights fighter also mentioned the consequences of this unprecedented wave of mass repressions following the demonstration in Independence Square in Minsk on December 19, 2010, which can be witnessed today.

“We can only guess what was the motivation for such acts of the authorities, but today we can confidently report a significant regression in the field of human rights since the events of December 19, 2010. By its scale and effects, the post-election crackdown in 2011 in Belarus is equal to the worst times of formation of the Lukashenka regime in 1996-1999”, - stated Valiantsin Stefanovich.

He also commented on the situation with the political prisoners, saying that 9 political prisoners continue to be held behind bars (Mikalai Statkevich, Ales Bialiatski, Eduard Lobau, Mikalai Autukhovich, Mikalai Dziadok, Ihar Alinevich, Yauhen Vaskovich, Artsiom Prakapenka and Andrei Haidukou), and at least 33 people are subjected to a variety of restrictive measures resulting from their convictions. “Criminal politically motivated persecution remains an urgent problem in modern Belarus since 1996 and apparently will remain so in the near future”, he said.

Human rights fighter also recalled that over these years illegal practices receive a "legitimate" form, as in the case with forced fingerprinting of all persons liable for military service, the practice of detention "for inaction" of the participants of silent protests, the ban on campaigning for a boycott during the latest parliamentary elections in 2012.

He also touched upon changes and additions to the Criminal Code, amendments to the law on political parties, public associations, on peaceful assemblies, which resulted in restrictions in basic fundamental civil and political freedoms, such as freedom of assembly, association, expression, and distribution of information

The state of the prison system, the lack of public control over the Interior Ministry and other security services is of particular concern, the human rights activist highlighted in his speech.

The death penalty problem could not but be mentioned in his speech. Belarus is the last country in Europe and the former Soviet Union, which still practices the death penalty. During the so-called "liberalization", we heard statements from senior government officials that Belarus had neared a moratorium on the death penalty, once again emphasizing that by preserving capital punishment Belarus “continues the policy of ignoring and disrespecting its international obligations in the field of human rights”.

One more point to mention in Valiantsin Stefanovich’s speech is “a flagrant violation of the provisions of the first Optional Protocol to the ICCPR”, as well as ignoring “other UN mechanisms”, such as the mandate of the Special Rapporteur appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, the decision of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, decisions adopted by the UN Human Rights Committee, etc.

Stefanovich also said that the situation with human rights can be described “as stable and poor, with numerous systemic problems, whose solution requires large-scale internal political reforms”. Summing up his speech, the human rights fighter said that “the conservation of the above situation in the country is what really constitutes a threat to the development of society, leading to its degradation, instead of adherence to the international standards of human rights”.

The full text of his speech can be found here.

At the Forum the results of the survey carried out by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee were also presented. According to it, many Belarusians have negative stereotypes about human rights defenders as a result of government propaganda.

Referring to the findings of a survey, Aleh Hulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, said that a large share of the Belarusian public viewed human rights defenders as part of the political opposition who help political prisoners and receive foreign grants for the purpose, and offer no assistance to ordinary people.

BelaPAN reports him saying that the majority of the respondents agreed that human rights work was important. More than 75 per cent of the interviewed said that the most important human right was the right to life. Other important rights mentioned by the people were the right to free education, the inviolability of the person and residence, and the right to a well-paid job, according to Mr. Hulak.

Most of the interviewed meant personal security rather than the abolition of capital punishment when speaking about the right to life, said the activist.

Only 20 per cent noted the importance of the right to a fair trial and freedom of speech, 15 per cent mentioned the right to own property, less than nine per cent the rights to freedom of religion and information, and only 7.5 per cent the right to choose and control government.

As many as 42 per cent expressed a high opinion of Belarus’ human rights record, compared with 39.4 and 35.7 per cent who said that the human rights situation was good in Western Europe and the United States, respectively. Only 25 per cent said that the human rights situation was good in Russia.

The figures suggest that many people in Belarus tend to believe government propaganda and have the wrong idea of human rights, Mr. Hulak concluded.