photos by tut.by,svaboda.org, belaruspartisan.org, euroradio.fm
The authorities have allowed the traditional procession; however, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to demonstrate force.
The move was preceded by an operation to supress the route of Anatol Liabedzka, the chairman of the United Civic Party and Aleksandr Borozenko and Anastasia Evmen, “Belsat” journalists who were covering this event. After some time the journalists were released and their video was deleted. Liabedzka was released, too, but then was detained again; eventually, the politician managed to arrive just in time to the manifestation in Bangalore Square.
Mikalai Ulasevich, an activist of the antinuclear campaign, has been detained by police in Maladzechna.
At the threshold of “Chernobyl Path” the actions of police got focused on the activists from Minsk.
At about 6 p.m. the police blocked the doors at the flat of Tatiana Novikava, one of the organizers of the event and the coordinator of the anti-nuclear movement. Iryna Sukhij, the chairperson the “Eco House” as well as Volha Kanavalava, Vasil Semyanikhin and Kanstantsin Kirylenka, the activists who were together with Sukhij at the moment when she was leaving her apartment were detained, too. On the pretext of the increased frequency of residential burglary cases, Sukhij together with the others was directed to the Pershamaiski district police station to be left there for three hours for identification.
The move itself has begun from the column of about thousand people that started its way with traditional slogans about Chernobyl and demands to stop the building of a nuclear power plant in the Astravets. In Bangalore Square it was about three hundred people who waited for the resolution to be promulgated. During the manifestation information about the beating of anarchist Igar Truhanovich and the detention of four more anarchists appeared. The activist, stained with blood, was put in the car. Later Iryna Arahouskaya and Aksana Rudovich, Nasha Niva journalists, who were making a video that demonstrated the beating of Truhanovich, have been detained. The journalists were left off after an hour.
After the manifestation was finished, the activists of “European Belarus” Aliaksandr Tarnagurski and Zmicier Charniak were detained.
What does the resolution of the current action requires:
- to stop the building of the nuclear power plant in Astravets;
- to provide the truthful and full information about the consequences of Chernobyl catastrophe and to carry out their full-scale research;
- to renew the law on social protection of citizens who suffered from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as well as to take action on its practical implementation, i.e. to provide the people from the polluted territories with an opportunity to resettle, and to stop the usage of the polluted territories in household;
- to give citizens real possibility to control consumer products and the environment with dosimeter.
There are political requirements as well:
- The condition for the realization of the environmental rights is the renovation of freedom of speech, assembly, association, free and open elections. In the current situation people are deprived of the possibility to decide what their environment, city, country are to be. We call for the full democratization of Belarus, its executive and legislative authority. The first step to do in this connection is to release the political prisoners.
The Belarus Committee of ICOMOS announces the collection of cases on the effectiveness of the State List of Historical and Cultural Values as a tool of the safeguarding the cultural monuments.
On March 27-28, the Belarus ICOMOS and the EuroBelarus held an online expert workshop on expanding opportunities for community participation in the governance of historical and cultural heritage.
It is impossible to change life in cities just in three years (the timeline of the “Agenda 50” campaign implementation). But changing the structure of relationships in local communities is possible.
"Specificity is different, but the priority is general." In Valożyn, a local strategy for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed.
The campaign "Agenda 50" was summed up in Ščučyn, and a local action plan for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed there.
The regional center has become the second city in Belarus where the local plan for the implementation of the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed.
Representatives of the campaign “Agenda 50” from five pilot cities discussed achievements in creating local agendas for implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It is noteworthy that out of the five pilot cities, Stoubcy was the last to join the campaign “Agenda 50”, but the first one to complete the preparation of the local agenda.
On May 28, the city hosted a presentation of the results of the project "Equal to Equal" which was dedicated to monitoring the barrier-free environment in the city.
On March 3, members of the campaign "Agenda 50" from different Belarusian cities met in Minsk. The campaign is aimed at the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In Stolin, social organizations and local authorities are implementing a project aimed at independent living of persons with disabilities, and creating local agenda for the district.
He said Belarus would likely face economic tightening not only as a result of the coronavirus pandemic but also a Russian trade oil crisis that worsened this past winter.
In his report, philosopher Gintautas Mažeikis discusses several concepts that have been a part of the European social and philosophical thought for quite a time.
It is impossible to change life in cities just in three years (the timeline of the “Agenda 50” campaign implementation). But changing the structure of relationships in local communities is possible.