The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus.
Brief description of the situation:
According to the information received, Mrs. Stremkovskaya was forbidden from leaving Belarus in order to attend an international conference organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), dedicated to the “Role of defence lawyers in guaranteeing a fair trial”, on November 3 and 4, 2005, in Tsibili, Georgia. She had planned to make an intervention on the need to change legislation in Belarus for the independence of lawyers and court system on this occasion.
On October 28, 2005, this interdiction was notified to Mrs. Stremkovskaya after that she asked the Minsk Bar Association the authorisation to travel abroad from November 2 to 5, 2005, as requested by Belarusian law, which foresees that lawyers have to ask in advance for days-off in order to go out of the country. On that day, Mr. A.V. Gambolevsky, deputy chairman of the Minsk Bar Association, issued an order prohibiting her to leave the country, in which he precised that his refusal was linked with “the possible need of extra lawyers in big criminal cases in other regions of Belarus”.
The Observatory fears that this measure be aimed at sanctioning Mrs. Stermkovskaya’s activities in favour of the independence of the judiciary in Belarus. In this regard, the Observatory notes that this is not the first time that Mrs. Stremkovskaya is prevented from leaving the country. Indeed, on December 2002, after she had made statements during an OSCE meeting in Warsaw, Poland, in which she denounced human rights violations in Belarus, Mr. Gambolevsky had already prohibited her to go to Seoul, South Korea, in order to participate in an international conference on democracy. The legal grounds of this refusal were that “Mrs. Stremkovskaya ha[d] travelled enough”. In 2001, she had been subjected to harassment from the Ministry of Justice, linked with her activities of defence of political opponents (See Annual Report 2001 of the Observatory).
The Observatory notes that the restriction on Mrs. Stremkovskaya’s freedom of movement is a violation of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular of its article 5 (c), which states that “for the purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, at national and international levels (...) to communicate with non-governmental or intergovernmental organisations”, article 6 (b) regarding the right “to freely publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms”, and article 6(c) with respect to the right “to study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters”.
Action requested :
Please write to the Belarusian authorities and urge them to:
i. Put an end to all forms of harassment and restrictions on Mrs. Stremkovskaya, as well as on all human rights defenders in Belarus, and guarantee in all circumstances that human rights defenders and organisations are able to carry out their work, including through participation in international human rights events;
ii. Conform with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in particular its article 1, which states that “every person has the right, individually or collectively, to promote the protection and fulfilment of human rights and fundamental liberties at the national and international level”, as well as the above-mentioned articles 5 and 6;
iii. Conform with the provisions of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), in particular article 9.1, which provides that “everyone will have the right to freedom of expression including the right to communication. This right will include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authorities and regardless of frontiers”, and article 9.5, which stipulates that “the participating States reaffirm that they will respect the right of everyone to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country, consistent with a State’s international obligation s and CSCE commitments”;
iv. Guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other international instruments ratified by Belarus.
Addresses :
Mr. Aleksander Lukashenko, President of Belarus; Fax (+375 17) 2260610
Mr. Sergei Sidorsky, Prime Minister ; Fax (+375 17) 22 26 665
Mr. Viktor Golovanov, Minister of Justice ; Fax(+375 17) 20 08 687
Mr. Pyotr Miklashevich, General Prosecutor ; Fax (+375 17) 20 65 727
Ambassador Sergei Aleinik, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations in Geneva, 15 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland, Email: mission.belarus@ties.itu.int, Fax: +41 22 748 24 51
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Paris - Geneva, November 14, 2005
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and fax FIDH 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / 01 43 55 18 80
Tel and fax OMCT + 4122 809 49 39 / 41 22 809 49 29