Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
is the first experience of the collective elaboration of a human rights
document of a universal nature. The seriousness of intention of the UN General
Assembly delegates was obvious from the fact that when the document was
submitted to the UNGA, it was voted for 1400 times on literally every word. The
nature of this document is not obligatory, it is a recommendation which was
adopted by 48 countries. None of the countries voted against the document however
8 countries abstained, among them South-African Republic, Saudi Arabia (argued
about the equality between men and women), as well as Poland, Jugoslavia, Check
Republic and the USSR (Russia, Belarus and Ukraine), they abstained due to the
fact that they disagreed with the universal principle of the declaration,
stated in its Article 2 (part one).
Honduras
and
Yemen
did not participate in the voting process at all. Entire world took part in the
process of amending of the Declaration.
In
the
USSR
the text of the Declaration of Human Rights could not be found in any library. It
was only in the beginning of the 1980s that the text of the Declaration was
published in the “Literaturnaya Gazeta”. It was a real break through that the
Soviet people found out for instance that they have a right to choose a country
for their living and to move freely around the world, to leave any country,
including their own and come back…
De jure and de facto declarations
De
jure
Belarus joined the
Declaration on Human Rights, however de facto some laws of the
Republic of
Belarus are in obvious contradiction to
the Declaration. For instance, art. 3 of the document says that “Everyone has the
right to life”, while the Criminal code contains the death penalty as a
punishment for certain war crimes and murder.
Article
19 of the Declaration states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any
media and regardless of frontiers.” The Constitution of the
Republic of
Belarus
also guarantees the right to receive, keep and impart information (art. 34),
the freedom of assembly, meetings, street marches, demonstrations and picketing
(art. 35). However concerning the dissemination of the information, many
independent Media were deprived of an opportunity to be disseminated via “Belpochta”
and “Belsoyzdruk” (the state owned monopolies) and only two week ago as a
result of the pressure implied by the European Union “Narodnaya Volya” and “Nasha
Niva” received a permission to be sold through the retail chain kiosks. In
accordance to the new Media Law, Journalists have no right to perform their
duties without accreditation. Regarding the freedom of assembly and picketing,
one should receive a written permission of the local authorities to stage
demonstrations, which is rather problematic.
International human rights defense organizations express concern
Prominent
international organizations for instance the “Amnesty International”, “Freedom
House” and the International Federations of Human Rights, as well as the State
Department of the
USA are
regularly making assessments of the situation with the human rights in
Belarus and
deliver statements in this regard. In the report on the human rights situation
in the world of the passed year (from July 2007 to July 2008) the “Amnesty
International” once again assessed
Belarus as a ‘not free country’. In
the section of the report that is dedicated to
Belarus, they point out to the pressure
on the civil society implemented by the authorities, legal persecutions of the
opposition activists, as well as continuation of the implementation of the
death penalty.
Belarusian
human rights movement de facto started in the end of the 1980s when the “Passional
of Belarus” was created. However the majority of the human rights organizations
were founded in the mid 1990s. The most profound and influential among them
that are still functioning are Belarusian Helsinki Committee which celebrated
its 13th anniversary recently, human rights centre “Viasna”, “Human
Rights Protection Alliance”, registered in Lithuanina, ‘Over the Barrier”.
What
human rights are the most frequently violated in
Belarus? Mr. Aleh Hulak, Acting
Chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, believes that “Indeed, the majority
of the issues arise in the area of political and Civil rights. However recently
we have noted that the situation with the civil rights is deteriorating as well
and that those are being violated seriously too”.
The “Amnesty International” declared
as “Prisoners of conscious” about 60 Belarusians in various years
For
almost a decade human rights organizations are drafting analytical reviews “Human
Rights violations in
Belarus”.
This year’s “Viasna” report, for instance was over 500 pages. No one knows the
exact number of those who were detained and repressed for political reasons in
Belarus. According
to human rights defender’s assessment, the number was several thousands (In
2006 alone 600 people were serving for administrative offences as the aftermath
of the events that took place on October Square). This year following the
pressure if the international community and requirements of the European Union,
political prisoners were set free, such as ex-Presidential candidate Aliaksandr
Kazulin, who spent two and a half years in prison; youth activists Anatoly Kim
and Artur Finkevich.
This
year the participants of the case of the 14th were persecuted,
(following a protest action of the entrepreneurs, there were cases brought
against its participants). On 8 December a trial on the last of the 14th,
Aliaksandr Barazenka, took place, who was kept in the detention centre from 27
October.
Many
of the activists were sentenced to 15 days of arrest and to fines. Students
were expelled from the higher educational establishments (for instance, Dzmitr
Zhaliaznichenka was expelled from the Gomel State University and was sent to
the army service; Franak Viachorka was expelled from the journalist faculty of
the Belarusian State University; Ivan Shyla was expelled from a Saligorsk
secondary school just before his graduation).
Belarus
is one of the few countries that has no an ombudsman, an authorized person to
deal with human rights. However the authorities believe that there are no
issues about human rights in the country.
Liudmila
Korsak
[email protected]
