Statement No 3 of the Committee on international control over the situation with Human Rights

International Observation Mission
of the Committee on international control over the situation with Human Rights in Belarus

Statement No.3
«On the situation with Human Rigths defenders and journalists in Republic of Belarus at January 13, 2011»

January 14, 2011

Acting on behalf of the Committee on international control over the situation with Human Rights in Belarus, which unites representatives of organizations for Human Rights from the OSCE countries together international non-governmental organizations,

monitoring the overall situation with the observance of fundamental human rights in the Republic of Belarus, as well as the protection of human rights and ensure their professional activities,

emphasizing that human rights are the subject of direct and legitimate concern of international civil society,

urging the government of Belarus to follow the undertaken international obligations in the sphere of human rights, and urging the participating OSCE countries to control the fulfillment of these obligations according to the principles of OSCE.

The International observation mission,

noting that the human rights situation in Belarus has become subject to assessment by various international organizations and institutions: the European Parliament, the three Special Rapporteurs of the UN (on the situation of human rights defenders, on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, on the independence of judges and lawyers), the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of OSCE, as well as the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the UN Secretary General Pan Gi Mun, who have expressed concern over the continued detention of journalists, presidential candidates and their agents and called for their immediate release and full respect for their human rights;

welcoming the fact that more than 100 NGOs from 20 countries of the OSCE called on the OSCE participating States to take action against the human rights situation in Belarus, including through the mechanisms of the human dimension;

expresses concerns on the following:

• the Mission continues to receive information about searches of homes and offices of independent journalists and human rights defenders in various cities of Belarus, in particular, in Minsk, Grodno and Gomel;
• the evidence of pressure on the families of imprisoned political opponents of the government, in particular the family of presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and journalist Irina Khalip [1] of Novaya Gazeta, as well as the family of the presidential candidate Ales Mihalevich  periodically appears in the media [2];
• there has not been an official denial of the information, prevalent in the media,that the admission of lawyers and families of the accused in a criminal case on the riots 19 December 2010, was not secured; in particular the former presidential candidates Andrei Sannikov, Vladimir Neklyaev and Nicholas Statkevich and journalists Alexander Atroshchankau, Irina Khalip and Natalia Radina were not attended by lawyers since late December last year [3].

In connection with the above, based on the mandate of the International Observation Mission of the Committee on International Control over human rights situation in Belarus, insists that the authorities of the Republic of Belarus:

• cease to use criminal prosecution and investigations to obstruct the work of human rights defenders, as well as a pretext to put pressure on political opponents and members of their families;
• scrupulously ensure observance of the guarantees for human dignity for all suspects and accused, as well as their access to qualified legal assistance;
• respond to reports in the media and to official appeals about human rights violations addressed to government agencies and intergovernmental structures by investigating the actions of state bodies and officials, rather than by sanctions against the authors of the appeals.