President of International Federation for Human Rights banned from entry to Belarus

Souhayr Belhassen, President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has been denied Belarusian entry visa in Belarusian consulate in Paris.

During her planned visit to Belarus Souhayr Belhassen intended to meet with representatives of the civil society, to discuss the situation with the democracy in Belarus, and to participate in hearings of the case of denied state registration of the public human rights association “Nasha Visana”, which is to start on August 10 in the Supreme Court. The issue of “chronic” denial to register the human rights centre “Nasha Viasna”, as well as others NGOs, rasies concerns of international human rights organisations including the FIDH.

In autumn 2007 Souhayr Belhassen, President of the FIDH, visited Belarus for the first time. During her stay in Minsk she sent official letters to the Interior Ministry, the Justice Ministry and other state bodies, and asked about a meeting with leadership of those agencies. However officials have ignored these addresses.

In an interview to the website www.charter97.org the FIDH President stated then: “If I am in Minsk now, it is only because the situation in Belarus is one of the most repressive in the region. I wanted to express solidarity of the FIDH with the pro-democracy movement of resistance in which the civil society of Belarus participates. We are fighting for respect to human rights in Belarus and we hope that once a trial over the persons guilty of abductions of oppositional leaders in Belarus will take place”.

As we have informed, since 2004 the human rights centre “Viasna” is a member of this influential international human rights organisation which unites 155 organisations worldwide. In 2007 the Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalatski was elected Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights.