Paval Lievinau: The majority of prosecutors of the Vitebsk Region have demonstrated abysmal ignoranc

The majority of prosecutors of the Vitebsk Region of Belarus haven’t even heard about the country’s accession to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punis

These conclusions were drawn by a human rights defender Paval Lievinau and communicated to the EuroBelarus Information Service in the issue of holding the awareness campaign held in order to inform prosecutors of the Vitebsk Region on the remarks of the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) and to disseminate the Belarusan NGO and human rights defenders’ alternative report.

Let us recall that at the 47th session of the UN Committee against Torture, which took place from October 31 to November 25, 2011, a forth report from Belarus was considered, as well as the report of Belarusan NGO and human rights defenders on compliance of Belarus with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Consequently, Concluding Observations in relation to Belarus were adopted, and the country was proposed to submit a regular periodic report up to November 25, 2012.

The CAT addressed its concerns in connection with the violation of the rights of detainees, use of torture and inhuman treatment, impunity and the absence of prompt and impartial investigations of complaints of torture and cruel treatment.

Belarusan human rights defenders made a decision to inform the prosecutors at all levels:

- about the UN Committee Against Torture,

- about the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter, the Convention),

- about the Belarusan NGO and human rights defenders’ alternative report on compliance of Belarus with the Convention (hereinafter, the Report),

- about the UN Committee Concluding Observations in relation to Belarus (hereinafter, the Observations),

- about the human rights situation within the subordinated territory.

- I have personally visited all the prosecutors of the Vitebsk Region in from the middle of July to the end of August 2012, says Paval Lievinau. I have visited 25 of them according to their location. After the verbal informing on the above mentioned issues the prosecutors were handed over the Brief Writing Guidelines, which the Report and the Observations were attached to. The information was sent by post to the prosecutors of Ušačy and Pastavy Raion.

The prosecutors’ response:

·      Acting prosecutor of Syanno Raion Azaryshkina E.A. reported that the information was taken into consideration.

·      Prosecutor of Pastavy Raion Kozič A.A. reported that no human rights violations on the Pastavy Raion territory were specified in the given information (in the Report and the Observations).

·      Acting prosecutor of Navapolack city Kolosova E.V. considered the informing as an appeal of certain actions and (or) decisions and therefore presented the provisions of part 1, article 40 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, paragraphs 1 and 3 of article 4 of the Law of RB “On Appeals from Citizens and Legal Persons”.

·         Acting prosecutor of Polatsk Raion Shadurko A.I. reported that in the course of studying the Report and the Observations he hadn’t established the presence of any data relating to the activities of the law enforcement agencies of Polatsk Raion and noted that human rights and legal interests protection is one of the Public Prosecutor's Office’s goals.

·         Prosecutor of Šumilina Raion Guliaev E.V. reported that he had discovered no human rights violations on Šumilina Raion territory in the given information.

·           Prosecutor of the Oktyabrsky Area of Vitebsk city reported that the prosecutor’s employees inspected the premise for short-term detentions in the administration of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Oktyabrsky Area of Vitebsk. By order of the Public Prosecutor's Office the employees of the sanitary and epidemiologic service “Medical Service of the Vitebsk regional executive committee” examined the above mentioned premise and the premise of medical-labor rehabilitation centers. Thus, the conditions of citizens’ detention comply with the legal requirements.

·           Acting prosecutor of Hlybokaye Raion Volynets I.S. reported that the conditions of detainees comply with the legal requirements, and as for the information in the Report applying to the Penal Colony #13, the Public Prosecutor Office made an inspection there and hasn’t found any violations of legislation.

·           Prosecutor of Šarkauščyna Raion Vetugov A.B. reported that the Report and the Observations contained no concrete data about the unlawful acts of the law enforcement executives on the territory of Šarkauščyna Raion.

·           Acting prosecutor of Dokšytsy Raion Mit’ko N.V. reported that the information contained no concrete facts of the human rights violation.

·         Acting prosecutor of Braslau Raion Kezik U.S. reported that while studying the Report and the Observations no facts and circumstances were found there as on torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of citizens of Belarus from the part of law enforcement executives.

·         Acting prosecutor of Miory Raion Romanovskaia S.O. reported that Belarusan citizens who had been wrought damage or whose human rights and legal interests had been abused had the right to address court and law enforcement agencies in order to protect their interests, either personally or through their representative as established by law.

·        Prosecutor of Vitebsk Raion Skritskij V.G. explained the provisions of the Law of RB “On Public Prosecutor’s Office” and reported that “Human rights activity of public prosecution bodies on realization of citizens' rights and freedoms provided by the Constitution of RB will be subsequently continued”.

·         Prosecutor of Haradotski Raion Pateev M.A. presented the provisions of part 1, article 4 of the Law of the RB “On Public Prosecutor’s Office” and returned the Report and the Observations to the addresser as the papers didn’t contain concrete facts of the current legislation’ violations.

A meeting was scheduled on September, 4 with the prosecutor of the Vitebsk Region. In the course of the meeting, the Report and the Observations were to be presented, and the results of the awareness campaign for Prosecutors of the Region were to be generalized, as well as cooperation was to be proposed.

According to Paval Lievinau, the vast majority of the prosecutors of the Vitebsk Region demonstrated abysmal ignorance in the branch of law and the international commitments of Belarus.

- Many of the prosecutors haven’t even heard that Belarus has acceded to the Convention and that Belarus thus is imposed to international commitments as to observe human rights, is obliged to report to the international community about the fulfillment of the undertaken commitments. For the majority of prosecutors it was a discovery.

In relation to the meetings’ results some Raions initiated inspection of the detention centers and medical-labor rehabilitation centers in order to provide the answers. However, the majority of the prosecutors disowned the problem due to the absence of concrete facts on violations in the Report relating to their areas.

- This experiment has showed that live communication is much more effective, notes Paval Lievinau. Only live informing together with the attached documents makes it possible for the public prosecution bodies to be aware of the problem. I think there is need to inform prosecutors in other regions of the country, as well, through personal contacts with human rights defenders.