Web pages about "Belarus"

Belarus must respect freedom of assembly, association and expression

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:45:34 +0100

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In 2007, Amnesty International members, youth groups and supporters sent over 11,000 origami cranes to the Belarusian authorities.

Another giant crane, created by Amnesty International youth members in Mexico, was also sent to the Belarusian Ministry of the Interior.

The cranes were part of a global campaign calling for the release of a youth activist, Zmitser Dashkevich, who was sentenced to one and a half years’ imprisonment for "organizing or participating in the activities of an unregistered non-governmental organization (NGO)".

Zmitser Dashkevich, leader of the youth opposition movement Young Front, was sentenced according to Article 193-1 of the Belarusian Criminal Code in November 2006. Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience.

Following the origami crane campaign (see video), Zmitser Dashkevich (pictured) was released early, on 23 January 2008.

Since it came into effect by Presidential decree in December 2005, Article 193-1 has meant that unregistered civil society organizations and other groups may be penalized for their activities. Organizing or participating in an activity of an unregistered NGO became a criminal offence which carries a prison sentence of up to two years.

Using Article 193-1, the Belarusian authorities have arrested, detained and convicted predominantly youth activists and members of NGOs for exercising their rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression. Many activists, particularly youth activists, have since been warned, fined and imprisoned.

Activists who are convicted get a criminal record which is cleared after two years. This can result in further problems, including being suspended from their institution of study, being discriminated against at work and being banned from leaving the country.

Registering an NGO in Belarus is extremely difficult. Activists for Young Front, for example, have made several unsuccessful attempts to legalize their organization, which has been in existence for more than a decade. Each application has been rejected by the Ministry of Justice.

In such circumstances, NGOs are forced to carry out their legitimate work in adverse conditions, constantly under the threat of harassment by the authorities. Article 193-1 has further facilitated the authorities' capacity to obstruct, harass and intimidate civil society activists for peacefully exercising their human rights.

The good news is that since Amnesty International has been campaigning against Article 193-1, the Belarusian authorities have stopped sentencing individuals to terms of imprisonment.

During its campaign for the release of Zmitser Dashkevich, the organization has noticed that while the authorities are still detaining and charging people under Article 193-1, court hearings are resulting in individuals being given fines or warnings rather than terms of imprisonment.

This suggests a shift on the part of the Belarusian authorities, possibly in response to international pressure. To keep up the pressure, Amnesty International is calling on the Belarusian government to go a step further and to abolish Article 193-1 now.

The organization is also calling on the Belarusian government to review other laws, regulations and practices relating to the registration and activities of NGOs, to stop the obstruction, harassment and intimidation of civil society activists who are peacefully exercising their human rights in Belarus and to stop the practice of suspending and expelling students from their academic institutions solely for peacefully exercising their human rights.

Early release for Belarusian newspaper journalist

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:05:08 +0000

A former deputy editor of a Belarusian newspaper has been released early from prison. On 22 February 2008, the Supreme Court of Belarus commuted Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou's three-year prison sentence to three months.

This decision resulted in his immediate release from the high security prison where he was being held. Amnesty International has welcomed his release, but called for his conviction to be overturned.

Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou, former deputy editor of Zhoda (Today) newspaper, was sentenced by a Minsk city court on 18 January 2008. He had been found guilty of "inciting racial, national, or religious enmity or discord" according to Article 130.1 of the Belarusian Criminal Code.

He was sentenced for publishing the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 in an article reporting the protests following their original publication in Denmark in September 2005. Amnesty International regarded Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.

Belarusian youth activist freed

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:12:34 +0000

The Belarusian youth activist, Zmitser Dashkevich, has been released early from Sklou prison in Belarus. Zmitser was the subject of a global Amnesty International action last year calling for his release.

In an interview shortly after his release, Zmitser said that he thought his early release was due to international pressure.

The first Zmitser's friends knew about his release was when he phoned them from Sklou post office on Wednesday. He then made his way home alone by train. His parents had suspected that an early release might be possible when prison authorities rejected their last food parcel for him.

A leader of the Young Front, Zmitser Dashkevich was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for "organizing or participating in activities of an unregistered organization" in November 2006. He was due to be released on March 15.

Amnesty International considered him to be a prisoner of conscience. He became the subject of a global action during which Amnesty International members, youth groups and supporters sent over 10,000 origami cranes to the authorities.

A giant crane was created by Amnesty International youth members at the ICM in Mexico and sent to the Ministry of the Interior in Belarus, but the package was refused at the border. The crane was then sent to the local human rights NGO, Vyasna, who successfully delivered the crane to the Ministry.

Video: The origami cranes' journey to Belarus

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:41:54 +0000

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When a Belarusian youth activist, Zmitser Dashkevich, was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for "organizing or participating in activities of an unregistered organization" in November 2006, Amnesty International considered him to be a prisoner of conscience. He became the subject of a global action during which Amnesty International members, youth groups and supporters sent over 10,000 origami cranes to the authorities.

A giant crane was created by Amnesty International youth members at the ICM in Mexico and sent to the Ministry of the Interior in Belarus, but the package was refused at the border. The crane was then sent to the local human rights NGO, Vyasna, who successfully delivered the crane to the Ministry.

Zmitser Dashkevich was released early from Sklou prison in Belarus on Wednesday, 23 January.

International Youth Day - winging it for freedom

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:49:56 +0000

Young people from across the globe have joined Amnesty International (AI) in a creative celebration of International Youth Day to demand freedom of expression in Belarus.

AI Youth activists from South Africa to South Korea came together at the organisation’s International Council Meeting in Mexico to create a symbolic representation of freedom to support prisoner of conscience Zmitser Dashkevich.
The youth opposition leader, who was imprisoned for expressing his views, has come to symbolise the problems of harassment and intimidation faced by young activists around the world.

Young people like Zmister Dashkevich, at the forefront of social activism, are often the first to be silenced. In Belarus, AI has observed an increasing number of arrests of youth activists. Many students were expelled from universities as a result of their political activities during and after the last presidential elections.

Youth delegates celebrate the construction of the giant crane as part of the Make Some Noise campaign for freedom of expression in Belarus.
The Youth delegates crafted an origami bird of peace nearly two metres in length. The paper bird will soon be winging its way to Minsk calling for Zmitser’s release from prison. The action is part of a campaign that has seen 6,500 paper birds already sent to Belarus.

Young people are a powerful voice with a key role to play in the promotion and protection of human rights. Young people bring renewed creativity and energy to campaigning.

This action, based around the simple act of turning folded paper into a powerful symbol, has created a global consciousness among young activists of their unique potential to create change.
This is one of many youth-led actions taking place across the world on 12 August: a celebration of positive action for human rights by young people, for young people.

Take Action:
Free Zmitser Dashkevich

Russia extradites, Uzbekistan abuses

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:25:45 +0000

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, co-operation between former members, Russia and Uzbekistan, has been increasingly influenced by concerns about regional security and the "war on terror".

Amnesty International (AI) has documented numerous cases of people who have been forcibly returned to Uzbekistan from Russia as alleged members of banned Islamic groups. These people have then been held in incommunicado detention, tortured and otherwise ill-treated, convicted after unfair trials and sometimes sentenced to lengthy prison terms or death.

The Uzbekistani authorities continue to make extradition requests for those they suspect of involvement in the Andizhan events in May 2005. Hundreds of people were killed when security forces fired on mainly peaceful demonstrators. Such extraditions demonstrate that the Russian government is disregarding its obligations under international law not to return anyone to a country where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations.

Interview with Russian human rights activist Elena Riabinina
Rustam Muminov, an Uzbekistani who lived in the Russian Federation since 2000, was forcibly deported from the country in October 2006. He was deported despite the fact that he had applied for refugee status with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and that the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation had in September 2006 decided he could not be extradited to Uzbekistan.

The case received wide media coverage and was the focus of campaigning by AI and others. It is perhaps due to this attention that criminal charges were brought against the head of the Moscow detention centre for foreigners, where Rustam Muminov was kept prior to being deported. In May 2007, he was found guilty of exceeding official powers when he allowed the deportation to go ahead. However, by that time, Rustam Muminov had already been sentenced to five-and-a-half years of imprisonment in Uzbekistan.

AI has recently learned about further cases of possible forcible return to Uzbekistan. Dilshod Kurbanov and Mukhamadsolikh Matiakubovich Abutov are both held in detention in Russia awaiting decisions on their status.

Dilshod Kurbanov has lived in the Russian Federation since 2003. He was detained on 30 May in the Tula Region of the Russian Federation and was taken to the Police Department for organized crimes. He is now being held in a pre-trial detention centre in the city of Novomoskovskoe 2. He had recently applied for recognition as a refugee to the UNHCR, which has not yet reached a decision.

Dilshod Kurbanov says he was persecuted in Uzbekistan because of his devout religious beliefs. He was questioned by police on several occasions about members of the banned Islamic party Hizb-ut-Tahrir. He says that, in 2002, he learned that his name was on a police list of alleged terrorists. When he was told that police had gone to his parents’ house, to take him away for questioning, he decided to leave the country for Russia.

Mukhamadsolikh Matiakubovich Abutov's house in Uzbekistan was searched in January 2007 and the police took away religious literature in order to check it for “extremist content”. Mukhamadsolikh Abutov had been imprisoned in Uzbekistan in the 1990s on what he says were fabricated charges. Fearing he would again be denied a fair trial and imprisoned, he left Uzbekistan for Russia in February.

Before he could approach the authorities to seek protection as a refugee, he was detained by what seem to have been members of the Uzbekistani Security Service on 13 June outside his apartment in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, and handed over to the local police department. He applied for refugee status with the UNHCR, but the police refused to hand over his application.

On 26 June, the city court in Krasnogorsk ordered his detention to continue, so that he could be deported to Uzbekistan. He was transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in the town of Mozhaisk, in the Moscow Region, the following day from where he was able to apply for asylum in the Russian Federation. No decision on his status has yet been taken.

AI is concerned that, despite overwhelming evidence that torture is systematic in Uzbekistan, the Russian authorities have claimed on several occasions that civil rights are protected in Uzbekistan. AI strongly condemns any state action that seeks to undermine the basic principles of international refugee protection.