Official Minsk has not submitted human rights report to UN for 13 years

The Belarusian Helsinki Committee and Viasna human rights centre have sent to the UN Human Rights Committee an alternative report about Belarus' progress in implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

"For more than 10 years the Belarusian government does not meet its obligations on regular accountability in implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The last report was prepared by the government in 1997, and never after, though the report is to be prepared every four years. To our mind, reports are not prepared as there is nothing to boast about: the situation with human rights in the country is not improving. On the contrary. We believe that the information collected by us would help the UN Human Rights Committee to give more precise evaluation of the situation in Belarus," said at the presentation Aleh Hulak, a representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.

As said by a human rights activist Valyantsin Stefanovich, over teh last half a year the guman rights situatio has deteriorated, and human rights activists froecast further deterioration of the situation in the run-up to the elections.

We remind that political prisoners Mikalai Autukhovich and Uladzimir Asipenka are kept in prison in Belarus, mass searches in flats of independent journalists were held in recent months, computers were sezied in the places oppositionists and public activists live; arrests of oppositionists during peaceful protests continue; young leaders are forcibly abducted, freedom of speech is still suppressed, two criminal cases have been opened against the leading independent news website charter97.org.