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Belarusian human rights activists: No positive changes in country

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The report on human rights violations in Belarus was presented in Warsaw.

Leader of Viasna human rights centre – organisation head and former political prisoner Ales Bialiatski and deputy head Valiantsin Stefanovich – as well as coordinator of the campaign Human Rights Defenders against Death Penalty Andrei Paluda presented a review of the human rights situation in Belarus during the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on September 24.

The meeting “Pervasive Violations of Political, Economic and Social Rights in Belarus” was organised by the International Federation on Human Rights and Viasna human rights centre, a charter97.org journalist reports.

“We think Belarus receives less and less attention due to the situation in Ukraine and the worsening human rights situation in Russia,” human rights activists say.

The panel discussion touched on the problems of preventive detentions of activists, violations of employment rights and enforced labour in Belarus as well as the problem of the death penalty. Valiantsin Stefanovich presented the reports “Forced Labour and Pervasive Violations of Workers' Rights in Belarus” and “Arbitrary Preventive Detention of Activists in Belarus”. He thinks there are no systematic positive changes in the country, the political situation remains frozen and the situation with media deteriorates.

“Along with the problem of criminal prosecution of opponents of the regime, preventive detentions are also a problem. They are based exclusively on a person's membership in an pposition organisaton. Preventive detentions are targeted. There are no doubts that the police know well whom they detain. For example, we saw such cases during the preparation and holding of for the Ice Hockey World Championship. Not only representatives of opposition groups were detained, but also a campaign to 'cleanse' the city of the so called asocial elements and prostitutes was carried out.

The first time when preventive detentions were carried out by the authorities ahead of elections was the 2006 election, when 236 activists were detained. The detentions have no grounds. The detained persons do not receive legal help and their families do not receive information. The cases are based only on evidence by police officers,” he said.

Human rights defenders raised the question of enforced labour and the system of employment contracts as a tool to press on any person in the country. According to them, every Belarusian family has faced the problem of enforced labour or the problem of terminating short-term employment agreements due to any problems relating to the demonstration of any form of protests or for any relation to an opposition group. Relatives of employees also suffer from pressure: spouses lose jobs and children cannot continue education.

The participants of the discussion gave such examples of enforced labour as subbotniks, compulsory assignment for students and labour in medical labour centres.

“A high level of secrecy surrounds the death penalty. The state annually executes its citizens at a jail in Valadarskki Street in Minsk centre. We think about 400 persons have been executed for the period of Belarus's independence, but the exact number is unknown due to secrecy,” Andrei Paluda says.

Ales Bialiatski noted the reports had been prepared while he was in prison and said he personally had faced the problem of enforced labour in prison.

“My wages in May for working 7 hours 6 days a week was $3.5, of which $2.5 was transfered to the account of the prison for heating, water and so on. With such miserable wages, inmates with debts find their debts growing. They cannot be amnestied if they have a debt. There's no way out of the situation,” he said.

Ales Bialiatski compared the Lukashenka regime with a rifle on the wall that can shoot one day. He recalls the 2010 election and a “thaw” in relations with the West, like the one we have today. He thinks the death penalty is the “main marker of a state's humanity” and says the demand to release the political prisoners should remain a compulsory condition for the Belarusian regime from the international community. He added the preventive detentions ahead of the Ice Hockey World Championship were an alarming sign ahead of 2015.

“The situation of Ukraine negatively influences the situation of Belarus. It is important for us to continue defending human rights in Belarus,” he said.

The OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting is held in Warsaw on September 22 – October 3.

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