The report, What is not permitted is prohibited: Silencing civil society in Belarus, shows how the authorities in Belarus regularly deny the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression, preventing people from speaking out in public, holding demonstrations or setting up civil organizations. Peaceful demonstrators frequently face fines or even prison sentences.

“Over the past 20 years, the government of Belarus has increasingly suffocated all aspects of civil society, depriving its people of the opportunity to express their opinions, to contribute to public debate and ultimately to act as a check on the authorities,” said Heather McGill, Amnesty International’s researcher on Belarus.

Amnesty International’s report analyses the legislation governing freedom of peaceful assembly and association and documents violations of these rights faced by human rights defenders, trade unions, environmental campaigners and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.

People trying to register independent organizations of any kind have to grapple with restrictive legislation which civil servants apply in ways that further restrict freedom of association. Activists who function without registration face the threat of prosecution for acting in the name of an unregistered organization.

No new political parties have been registered in Belarus since 2000 because of stringent registration requirements, and members of independent trade unions face discrimination in the workplace.

Ales Bialiatski, a prisoner of conscience and the Chair of Human Rights Centre Viasna, an organization which lost its registration in 2003, was sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment in 2011 for money that was paid into his personal bank accounts in Poland and Lithuania to fund the work of the human rights centre as it had been prevented from opening a bank account in Belarus.

Aleh Stakhaevich, a driver for the Granit gravel quarry in south western Belarus, was elected president of an independent trade union founded in December 2011. In accordance with legislation, the workers informed the employer about the establishment of the union and asked for a legal address. The company refused and harassed those trying to join it. Aleh Stakhaevich was prosecuted for careless driving in what, he believes, was a fabricated case and dismissed. To date four members of the independent union have been dismissed while others have been intimidated and left the union for fear of losing their jobs.

When local Amnesty International members attempted to register as an international organization in 2003 they were told there were problems with the use of the organization’s symbol. When they tried to register as a local foundation in 2005 they were told that they could register if they agreed all activities with state bodies in advance. As this threatened their ability to function independently, they decided not to register.

Over the years Amnesty International has documented many incidents where participants in unsanctioned demonstrations have been arrested and detained and sometimes beaten by the police.

In 2011 weekly “silent protests”, where groups of people throughout the country would stroll wordlessly, applaud or use their mobile phone alarms simultaneously, saw participants beaten, sentenced to administrative detention or fined.

The largest demonstration in the country’s recent history, following the presidential elections in December 2010, was suppressed with unprecedented violence. When police moved in to disperse it in the centre of the capital Minsk over 700 people were detained and many, including by-standers, were beaten and wounded. Four prisoners of conscience Mykalau Statkevich, Pavel Sevyarynets, Eduard Lobau and Zmitser Dashkevich remain in prison in connection to the demonstration to this day.

The Law on Mass Actions violates the fundamental right of people in Belarus to demonstrate.

“Even a one-man march or protest is considered a violation of the Law on Mass Actions.  Protestors can be prosecuted for holding a one-man march or even fined for presenting a gift in public,” said Heather McGill.

Peaceful protesters are frequently sentenced to fines or short periods of detention for violating the Law on Mass Actions or for minor offences such as swearing in public. Pavel Vinahradau, a member of the youth political movement Zmena (Change), spent a total of 66 days in detention between 30 December 2011 and 12 December 2012 on eight separate administrative convictions, all for minor offences such as swearing or violations of the regulations for public meetings and pickets.

“Belarus must allow its people to express themselves freely without repression. The Belarusian authorities must review all presidential decrees and laws relating to the registration and activities of NGOs and ensure that officials respect the right to freedom of association and assembly.”

Such a conclusion was made by the deputy chairman of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” as a result of his recent visit to the capital of the European Union to participate in a conference on the dialogue on the modernization of Belarus held on April 9, 2013.

“For “Viasna,” as a human rights organization, it is important that the release and rehabilitation of political prisoners was a precondition for the resumption of dialogue between Belarus and the European Union. The most important task for us is that they were released. And, secondly, to enable them to participate fully in the political life of the country. This means that their convictions should be removed from criminal records, which, according to law, largely limits their rights, including political ones,” stresses the human rights defender.

This position was voiced by Valiantsin Stefanovich in Brussels, where he met with the head of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Belarus Filip Kaczmarek and representatives of the office of European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule.

Regarding the position of the European Union, Valiantsin Stefanovich says that now there is a trend to restore dialogue with the Belarusian authorities, “They say that many are disappointed that the application of sanctions has not led to the release of the prisoners, that they will further isolate the country, further directing it in the field of influence of Russia.”

“On the other hand, following my visit to Brussels, I do not see any illusions in the assessment of the regime. No one has such illusions over there. And the credibility of Lukashenka and his entourage was greatly undermined after December 19, 2010. I do not think that anyone in the EU really expects a liberalization (or democratization or modernization – you can call it as you like it) of the political system in Belarus, which would be conducted by the Belarusian authorities,” says the human rights defender.

According to Valiantsin Stefanovich, the EU currently formulates the basic issue – the release of political prisoners and reduction of the level of repression in Belarus. Probably, this is the maximum that can be achieved today.

Our goal is also to monitor what important stakeholders are saying inside and outside of Belarus about this issue, to interact with them and for advocacy purposes.

We encourage you to follow @Freeales and to follow and promote the hashtag #freeales everytime you tweet about Belarus.

Last tweets using #FreeAles

Tweets concernant “#FreeAles”

Twitter lists

We have build publically accessible lists of media accounts, international organisations and important decision makers, who tweet about Belarus.

We welcome your feedback on @Freeales at any time.

Our objective is to have a wide range of sources, content and materials that will keep us up to date about publications dealing with issues related to human rights in Belarus on a same dashboard. This tool feeds our archiving work on social media and our email information sharing between people working on campaigns on Belarus.

How it works

Instead of repeating searches, we rely on RSS feeds and an RSS aggregator (Netvibes) to automatize searches on various engines and websites. As soon as a new publication is identified, the aggregator gathers results on the same page, organized in Tabs.

The dashboard mixes RSS feeds rom search engines (for instance Google blog search, Google News or Boardreader) with RSS feeds from websites identified as relevant sources of information for users interested in the issue.

Results

As a consequence, users have a better and quicker understanding of what is new, where news comes from and what material is circulating. Ultimately, patterns can be identified, and new sources and materials can be spotted.

This process also accelerates news monitoring and exposes users to a wider range of sources like blogs, discussion boards, and video or photo.

HR news in Belarus tab, from Human Rights in Belarus FIDH dashboard on Netvibes
Available at http://www.netvibes.com/freeales#HR_news_in_Belarus

How we built the dashboard

We started defining an extensive semantic field with key words and expressions covering our activities. For instance we used terms like :

• Human rights Belarus
• Ales Bialiatski and the names of other political prisoners in Belarus
• Belarus United Nations
• The names of HR organizations working on/in Belarus

We searched those queries in English and Russian on various search engines, such as Google News, Google BlogSearch, Yandex BlogSearch, BoardReader, video and photo sharing platforms… and we fetched RSS feeds.

The dashboard is built with several tabs organized according to themes. Each tab is made of several modules and each module is updated thanks to an RSS feed.

A beta dashboard

When searching for keywords, feeds always retrieve a certain level of noise. By noise, we mean content that is not relevant to our search. By contrast, there are also some key words or expressions that we may not be using but should: this is called silence, and is something we want to avoid.

Given that we share some knowledge about sources and/or key words or expressions, we would really like to make this tool an opportunity to share information about monitoring techniques and quality of sources. Please feel free to write us an email or a comment to this article so that we can incorporate any suggestions you may make to improve the quality of this news aggregator.

As it is stated in the KGB letter, published by charter97.org, the photo album “contains deliberately distorted insinuations about the life of the Republic of Belarus in the political, economical, social and other spheres which don’t meet the reality and insult the national honor and dignity of citizens of the Republic of Belarus”. “The choice of the photos for the photo album in the aggregate reflects only negative sides of the life of the Belarusian people together with the author’s own insinuations and conclusions, which, with the view of the socially accepted norms and morals, insults the national honor and dignity of citizens of the Republic of Belarus, diminishes the authority of the state power organs, undermines the trust of foreign states, foreign and international organizations to them,” is stated in the letter.

On 21 February 2013 officers of Ashmiany customs office answered the inquiry of the Belarusian Association of Journalists concerning the fate of the confiscated photo albums, saying that the 41 albums had been passed to the State Security Committee (KGB). Then the KGB did conclude that the content of the photo albums was extremist.

Yuliya Darashkevich and Vadzim Zamirouski who transported the albums to Belarus are summonsed to Ashmiany District Court on 17 April.

On 30 March 2013 the books “Bialiatski’s Case” and “Enlightened by Belarusian Issue” were presented in Babruisk.

The former book was presented by its author, journalist of Radio “Liberty” Valery Kalinouski. He told Babruisk residents how the book came to be written and showed the photos woth which it was illustrated.

“I hope that Ales will feel that people are talking about his book not far from his penitentiary today”, noted Mr. Kalinouski.

He also proposed that Babruiskers write a collective congratulation letter for Bialiatski for Easter. The letter was sent to the colony the same day.

The book “Enlightened by Belarusian Issue”, written by Ales Bialiatski, was presented by his friend, poet and folk singer Eduard Akulin. He spoke about the story of their friendship and sang a song dedicated to the imprisoned friend.

Human rights defender Zmitser Salauyou answered questions concerning the activities of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” and invited everybody to the opening of the new office on 1 April.

All present people could receive the both books for free. “I advise that you read Ales’ book and wait for his release. Then you can come to the colony or to the railway station and he will sign it for you”, said Valery Kalinouski at the departure.

At a press conference to mark the office’s opening, human rights defenders presented two reports completed since the former office closed in 2012: a survey of the human rights situation in Belarus in 2012, and an analysis of the situation regarding the penitentiary system in Belarus.

In his remarks, Valentin Stefanovich, vice-president of the Center, said: “Today we will tell you about the results of our work, which never ceased while our office was closed. We focused on analytical work, specifically the preparation of a report on the human rights situation in Belarus. It was published as a brochure and summarizes the results of the monitoring we conduct every year. As far as the report on the penitentiary system is concerned, it is based on an analysis of letters sent from prisons by regular prisoners.” The former attorney Pavel Sapelko assisted Valentin Stefanovich in preparing the second report.

Assessing the situation with human rights in Belarus, Valentin Stefanovich said that it remains very complicated. In his opinion, the laws have become more repressive, and fundamental human rights like freedom of assembly and freedom of speech and expression are not being observed.

According to Stefanovich, the most important issue for the human rights defenders at Viasna is the release of political prisoners, who remain deprived of their rights. He noted the importance of the EU’s principled position that the release of political prisoners is the main condition for commencing negotiations with official Minsk.

Stefanovich also pointed out that 11 political prisoners remain behind bars and another 38 former political prisoners are still being deprived of their rights. These people, like Khalip and others, have received conditional sentences and have been placed under preventative supervision. Over the past year, only the situation of only two people—Pochobut and Parfenkov—has improved somewhat.

In regards to the new office, Stefanovich announced that the apartment now housing Viasna’s office belongs to a foreigner: “Considering the situation in our country, it’s important that the owners of apartments used by organizations like Viasna live outside of Belarus in order to avoid prosecution by the government. We are using this office under a letter of authority, and we are counting on being able to work in it for a long time.”

A community liaison office will open at the new address.

The Viasna Human Rights Center will continue to track the situation with human rights in Belarus, monitor election campaigns, including upcoming local elections and the presidential election 2015, and work on current projects, like setting up a human rights school.

Photo: Radio Svaboda

This year, the authors of the review noted that the opportunities to exercise the freedom of association in 2012 in Belarus did not broaden. At the level of legal regulation there haven’t been fixed any significant changes, which would worsen or improve the position of non-commercial organizations. However, further reformation of the legislation on public associations is planned for 2013.

Particular attention is paid to the draft law on alteration of the law of the Republic of Belarus “On public associations”. It doesn’t change the essence of the registration procedure on the basis of authorization-based principle, which gives a possibility for arbitrary refusal of registration.

The practice of arbitrary refusals to register public associations has continued, as well as the practice of endorsing institution designations. Other obstacles in NCO activity include: deprivation of accommodation for holding events or of offices, restrictions in attraction of financing. However, the norms of criminal responsibility for the breach of order of attracting free foreign aid, introduced in the legislation at the end of 2011, haven’t been used.

The main points of the document will be submitted to the UN in the form of the assessment of Belarus’ implementation of the recommendations made to it in 2010 during the UN Universal Periodic Review. Belarus was recommended to decriminalize the activities of unregistered organizations and to take other measures in order to improve the legal environment for non-governmental organizations. The next UPR round for Belarus will take place in May 2015.

See the full text of the review Freedom of association and legal status of non-commercial organizations in Belarus in 2012

In mid-March 2013, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) published its new strategy for working with the Republic of Belarus over the next three years. It is noteworthy that the Bank invited a wide circle of representatives of Belarusian civil society to consult on developing this approach paper.

Among other things, the strategy notes that, in light of recent political and economic events and continuing its policy of constructive engagement to promote reform, the Bank will limit its investments with state-owned enterprises in the areas of trade finance, energy efficiency credit lines, and private equity funds.

As it implements its strategy, to EBRD will consider the following criteria:

- progress toward meaningful political accountability, including the strengthening of checks and balances in the political system;

- removal of impediments to NGO and opposition parties’ active engagement in political life and even-handed application of the rule of law;

- the state of media freedom and freedom of expression.

Significantly, it was cooperation with Belarusian human rights defenders and international human rights organizations that monitor human rights in Belarus that resulted in the inclusion of release and rehabilitation of political prisoners in the list of benchmarks the Bank uses to evaluate the situation in Belarus. The Strategy highlights “Progress in enforcing the human and civil rights protections guaranteed in the Constitution, including freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, and the release and rehabilitation of those recognized by the EU and other members of the international community as political prisoners” as one of the benchmarks that will be monitored over the next three years to determine the extent of the Bank’s investments in the Belarusian economy.

Belarusian NGOs consulted on the strategy include the Viasna Human Rights Center, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the Legal Transformation Center, the Lev Sapegi Foundation, the Belarusian Organization of Working Women, and about three dozen other well-known social organizations and institutions. The final document describes and summarizes the process of consultations with these groups and provides a detailed analysis of the proposals made by Belarusian NGOs. It also describes the extent to which certain recommendations were considered by the Bank.

The positions of authoritative international organizations like Open Society Foundations, Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship, and others were also incorporated into the strategy. Recommendations made by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) specifically noted the main features of repression of the Belarusian regime that must be monitored closely, including violent and intense crackdowns on Belarusian democracy activists since 19 December 2010, increasing social control, continuous intimidation of the public and the media, and the persecution, intimidation, detention, harassment and muzzling of human rights defenders, opponents, and activists. FIDH also noted that civil society as a whole faces permanent pressure and harassment as the economic and social rights of Belarusian citizens are increasingly violated and workers are deprived of basic labor rights. As an example, FIDH cited the prosecution of the Ales Bialiatski, president of the Viasna Human Rights Center, whose detention since August 2010 has been found illegal by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

In its comments on the benchmarks developed by the EBRD, FIDH highlights the necessity of considering specific top-priority benchmarks. In the case of Belarus, FIDH highlights the necessity of ending the harassment of human rights defenders, journalists, and civil activists and withdrawing article 193(1) from the Belarusian Criminal Code, which penalizes participation in unregistered organizations, de facto criminalizing the members of hundreds of associations that have lost their registration. FIDH believes that an environment must be created in Belarus where NGOs can register without impediment.

See the full text of the EBRD document “Strategy for Belarus.”