Invitation for participation: Civil society in situation of presidential elections in Belarus

Assembly of NGOs and “Lawtrend” in cooperation with Belarusan domestic election observation groups cordially invite to the side event during the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2015.

The next presidential election in Belarus will take place on 11 October 2015. The incumbent Aliaksandr Lukashenka who has been in power since 1994 is running for his fifth consecutive term in office.

In the frames of the side-event, Belarusan civil society representatives will focus on the situation with human rights and legal conditions for civil society organizations in Belarus on the eve of presidential elections.

The event will be held by the representatives of major groups carrying out the domestic observation of the presidential elections: the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign, including the Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, and the “Right to Choose” campaign uniting 8 political parties and trade unions.

During the event, an analysis of the legal environment before the elections, including obstacles obstructing free and fair elections, will be presented. The process of election commissions formation and initiative groups registration, presidential nomination procedures, conditions for campaigning (including the conditions for publications in the media, conditions for holding meetings and pickets and the possibility of disseminating candidates’ programs) will be assessed. National observation campaigns will present their conclusions and evaluation of the process if the presidential elections on October 11 are free and fair.

The event will take on Monday, September, 28, 2015 between 13.15 and 14.45 in Warsaw, Sofitel-Victoria Hotel (Krolewska str.11) Meeting Room 3. The working languages of the side-event are English and Russian.

Representatives of the Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus and Legal Transformation Centre will dwell on the conditions for the work of NGOs in Belarus. Particular attention will be given to the facts of pressure on NGOs related to the presidential elections, as well as to the reform in the field of receiving foreign financial support in Belarus.

Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus