Leanid Sudalenka: "Papchenia Family Against Belarusian Government" Case Is To Go Down In History

The strategic litigation will end with a change in the national legislation.

Legal inspector of the independent trade union of the radio electronic industry (REP) in the Homel region, laureate of the Charter-97 prize in the nomination "For Personal Courage" for 2017 Leanid Sudalenka has written on Facebook about this:

"I got up a subbotnik to finish my complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of the parents of 13-year-old schoolgirl Viktoryja Papchenia, who died on the collective farm field under the wheels of a truck.

The appeal is about violating the rights of the child to life by state agents. I am confident that the "Papchenia Family Against Belarusian Government" case will go down in history and become a reminder to every hot bureaucratic head that will ever decide to order schoolchildren to banned forced labor. We will do our best to ensure that the future UN decision is there in plain sight in every school, as a reminder to adults about the responsibility for our children.

And one more thing. For those who repeat that nothing can be changed. For the two years since the tragedy near Maladzechna, we have not recorded a single case of involving schoolchildren in the performance of forced agricultural work. For today, the decision of the court of first instance on the recovery of compensation for moral injury in favor of the deceased schoolgirl’s family in the amount of BYN 50 thousand has been fully enforced.

The strategic "Papchenia Family Against Belarusian Government" litigation continues, and, I’m sure, it will end with a change in both the national legislation and the practice of its application leading to violation of the children's right to life in our country."