Ales Bialiatski: Authorities Fear Any Acts Of Human Rights Activity

The leader of the human rights centre Viasna has commented on the tenacious unwillingness of the authorities to recognize any problems with human rights in Belarus.

As the chairperson of the public association Mahilyou gender centre Ruzha Alena Barysava has informed, that giving reasons for the denial to register the centre, Mahilyou regional executive committee used the following argument: the aim to eradicate gender discrimination indicates that such discrimination exists in Belarus, but this aim is outside the competence of a public association, as the Constitution of Belarus guarantees equal rights to citizens of Belarus without regard to gender. Thus, such guarantees of equality are provided by competent government bodies, the human rights centre Viasna reports.

Commenting on this statement about absence of gender discrimination in Belarus, Ales Bialiatski drew a parallel with a striking episode from the Soviet time:

“I recall a famous saying of the second half of the 1980ies, when Liudmila Ivanova from the Soviet Women’s Committee said there was “no sex in the Soviet Union” during a US-Soviet TV Bridge. And the situation is similar in this case: Mahilyou officials claim there is no gender discrimination in our country. In reality, such things could only be written by people who do not want to be realistic about the life that we live, these people are insincere and hypocrites. It is obvious that the problem of gender discrimination is relevant for Belarus. It exists all over the world. Sometimes it is hidden, camouflaged, but often open.”

Ales Bialiatski says the gender centre Ruzha is a “manifestation of the nervous reaction to the citizens’ wish to register a human rights organization.”

“No new human rights organizations have been registered for a long time already in Belarus, and the current ban is yet another example after the case of the national association Pact two years ago and an attempt to close the Mahiliou Human Rights Center last year, – says the human rights defender. – It’s the stubborn unwillingness of the authorities to face the problems of human rights in Belarus, both political and social ones, and the desire to control, to filter all manifestations of public life.”

Viasna head emphasizes that “the declaration of liberties in the Constitution does not guarantee the full exercise of these liberties in real life.”

“It is the mission of human rights organizations to enforce the rights and freedoms prescribed by the Constitution and international agreements. Paradoxically, such a decision itself violates the Constitution: formally advocating constitutional rights, the authorities are actually breaking the law,” – he said.

Summing up, Ales Bialiatski says: “The authorities are afraid of human rights defenders and any forms of their activity, therefore they refuse to register new human rights organizations. Meanwhile, this is a gross violation of the Belarusian legislation and the international obligations of Belarus.”