Human Rights in Belarus

Latest Update: January - March 2012 quarterly update is available here. 

19 December events

Following the 19 December 2010 crackdown on human rights defenders in Belarus, the repression continued throughout 2011. Most of the 700 or so detained in connection with election night protests were released. However 45 people, including seven presidential candidates, were charged with organising or taking part in a “mass riot”.

Former presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich was released on bail awaiting trial on19 February and shortly afterwards he made a public statement alleging that he had been tortured whilst in detention.  He subsequently submitted an application to the UN Committee Against Torture, saying he was suspended in handcuffs, taken out into the cold naked, forced to stand against a wall in a stretch position for 40 minutes at a time, and subjected to sleep deprivation. Mikhalevich fled Belarus and claimed political asylum in the Czech Republic. Other political prisoners have since claimed that they too were tortured in custody.  We have concerns that there are a number of political prisoners who are suffering with serious medical conditions but are not receiving adequate medical treatment from the prison authorities.

In May, five ex-presidential candidates were amongst dozens who were sentenced for organising or taking part in “mass riots” on 19 December 2010. The Court proceedings fell far short of international standards for fair trials.

Silent Protests

Since the beginning of 2011, as far as we have been able to ascertain, there appear to have been 16 politically-motivated expulsions from universities and 11 people dismissed from state-controlled work places.

The authorities took an increasingly repressive reproach to the so-called “silent” protests which took place in many towns in Belarus on Wednesdays in June and July. Despite the fact that those involved shouted no slogans and displayed no signs, but just occasionally clapped, the authorities responded by detaining, often by force and at random, the citizens it suspected of being engaged in the protest. The authorities scaled up their response which, initially, was a few hours detention plus some fines to sentencing some citizens to up to 15 days in prison.  The Government intends to amend the law on mass events aligning it with the practice followed by courts treating “coordinated inaction” in the same was as coordinated action, as an offence.

Lawyers and Human Rights Defenders

There have been continuing instances of harassment and persecution of lawyers in Belarus. Of particular concern is the of disbarment of six lawyers–Tatsyana Sidorenko, Pavel Sapelka, Vadzimer Toustsik, Tamara Harayeva, Tatsyana Aheyeva and Aleh Aheyev five of these lawyers were defending people charged in connection with protests on 19 December 2010.  We view these actions as a deliberate attempt by the authorities to hamper fair trials. We have further concerns over the introduction of extraordinary qualification exams this summer for already qualified lawyers. Such mechanisms may pose a serious threat for lawyers who risk losing their ability to perform their professional role for political reasons, despite possessing the necessary academic and professional qualifications.

The UK’s Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke is one of 11 Ministers from across Europe who has signed an open letter to the Belarus Minister of Justice expressing serious concern at ongoing reports of harassment and persecution of lawyers in Belarus. The letter is signed by the Justice Ministers of the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden and supported by Lithuania.

Letter from the Justice Ministers [PDF, 331 Kb]

Human rights defenders have experienced heightened levels of harassment.  Prominent Belarusian human rights defender, Ales Byalyatski, Chair of the respected human rights defence organisation Vyasna, was detained under suspicion of gross tax evasion, a charge which carries a possible sentence of up to seven years’ imprisonment.

What we are doing

The UK has been working with EU partners to bring pressure to bear on the Belarusian authorities. EU Foreign Ministers agreed at the Foreign Affairs Council on 31 January to re-impose sanctions on Belarus and to update the list of individuals subject to travel restrictions. We supported the further extension of the list of individuals subject to EU sanctions to take account of more recent human rights abuses. The EU extended sanctions to include an arms embargo and restrictions against a businessman associated with President Lukashenko and three of his companies. The UK was one of 14 States which invoked the so-called OSCE ‘Moscow Mechanism’, which triggered an independent fact-finding mission to review the human rights situation in Belarus. The mission reported serious, gross and systematic human rights violations. We also strongly supported the UN Human Rights Council resolution on Belarus, which was adopted on 17 June. The resolution will ensure that Belarus is on the agenda in the UN Human Rights Council for the next 12 months, with oral and written updates from the High Commissioner for Human Rights. This will be an opportunity to build stronger cross-regional support for a UN Special Rapporteur, if Belarus does not co-operate.

Nine political prisoners were released in August.  The stance of the EU and the UK is that only when all of the political prisoners are released and rehabilitated will there be any meaningful dialogue between the EU and Belarus.