Zhlobin resident finds justice in UN

The UN Human Rights Committee issued its decision on the complaint from Zhlobin-based Valiantsin Yauzrezau, a representative of the Homel Strategic Ligation Centre.

The Committee admits that the authorities violated his rights by forbidding a picket against prosecution of former presidential candidate Aliaksandr Kazulin in 2007.

Yauzrezau earlier tried to appeal against the decision of the local authorities to national courts. Having exhausted domestic remedies, he applied to the Human Rights Committee in 2010.

Leanid Sudalenka, the head of the Homel Strategic Ligation Centre, said to BelaPAN, commenting on the picket ban, that any restriction of civil and political rights must meet the requirement of necessity and proportionality, must be provided for by the law and be necessary for achieving particular goals it pursues.

“It means that the right to freedom of peaceful assemblies is not absolute and can be restricted, but the restrictions must be necessary in the interests of national security, public order, healthcare, protection of morality, rights and freedom of other persons,” the human rights defender says.

He notes that in the case of Yaurezau officials didn't implement any of the mentioned conditions, by banning a mass event in Zhlobin. They thought that if former candidate Aliaksandr Kazulin was serving his sentence in accordance with the court decision, a protest picket couldn't have been carried out because it would have violated the court decision. “This conclusion of officials has no legal grounds and is not necessary for achieving any of the above mentioned legitimate goals,” Sudalenka noted.

The government of Belarus must provide the injured party with an effective legal remedy, including the full compensation of expenses on the case. It mustn't allow similar violations in future. The government must publish its decision in official media and implement it within 180 days.

The UN Human Rights Committee is the only international agency that Belarusian citizens can apply to in connection with violations of their civil rights. The first complaint to the Committee from a Belarusian citizen was submitted in 1997. The Committee registered 180 complaints from Belarus. Decisions on 79 complaints said the rights of complaint authors were violated, the consideration of 8 complaints was terminated as the contact with authors was lost, and 17 complaints were found invalid due to violations of lodging procedures. Decisions on two complaints say no violations took place. Seventy six complaints are pending consideration.