About Committee

On December 27, 2010 the decision to establish the Committee on International Control over the Human Rights Situation in Belarus was taken by the non-governmental organizations’ coalition of OSCE region.

It was triggered by continuing information on flagrant and systematic human rights violations after Presidential elections in Belarus; inter alia – freedom from torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, right to fair trial, freedom of assembly and association, freedom of speech.

At the moment Committee consists of around 30 international organizations, among them: International Civil Initiative for OSCE, Moscow Helsinki Group (Russia), International Network for Freedom, Legality and Rights in Europe (FLARE), International Youth Human Rights Movement (YHRM).

The fundamental decision of the Committee is that the belarusian organizations would not participate in the work of the Committee. According to the Moscow Helsinki Group expert Andrey Yurov, mentioned reflects the intention to keep neutrality of the mission in relation to the current political situation in Belarus.

Committee will be engaged in monitoring and control over the observation of fundamental human rights, conditions of human rights defenders and human rights organizations in the country. The observation will be focused on actions of state  authorities in case of human rights violations as well as on possible activities of any radical society groups, being able to put under threat its observance.

The Committee will also make recommendations for the national authorities and supranational authorities on normalization situation in the country and bringing it to conformity with the national legislation and international obligations undertaken by the Belarus government.

The Mission will not provide evaluation of the  the Presidential elections’ results and electoral process.

For the work on the territory of the Republic of Belarus the Committee formed long-term International Observation Mission, composed of representatives of the human rights organizations from the OSCE area, members of international organizations and independent experts.

Emphasizing its political neutrality and wishing to form a complete picture of the situation, Committee calls on both governmental authorities and non-governmental organizations, including civil and human rights organizations towards open and fruitful cooperation.

For additional information you can address to the Secretariat of the Committee on [email protected]

News of Belarus

Belarus prisoner release: Same old trick

Good news from Belarus is rare, but last weekend president Alexander Lukashenko pardoned six political prisoners.

For the pardoned, all serving multi-year prison terms for challenging Belarus’ autocracy, this is, to say the least, a relief, and has been welcomed by local democrats and the international community.

Lukashenko has declared his decision an act of “humanity”. But is, in fact, a carefully timed tactical move to sway the European Union at a time of growing domestic and geopolitical pressure.

The question is whether he will succeed this time.

The International Day of Solidarity with Belarus 2015

Seven countries around the world celebrated the International Day of Solidarity with Belarus on August the 4th. Human and civil rights activists, as well as other people who are simply sympathetic with the citizens of Belarus and who share deep concern about their future, took part in online discussions, talked to people on the streets and posted various material in social media in order to raise awareness of countless violations of human rights in Belarus.

Solidarity with civil society in Belarus

4 August is an international day of solidarity with the civil society of Belarus. This day matters, because of the daily pressure against civil society in Belarus.

When a coalition of international civil society organisations, at the initiative of the International Youth Human Rights Movement of Voronezh (Russian Federation), launched the idea of an international solidarity day with civil society in Belarus, the country was coming out of the 2010 presidential election cycle, which symbolically ended with the arrest of the country’s leading human rights defender Ales Bialiatski.

The 4 August is key to Belarus, because of Ales Bialiatski’s arrest on this day in 2011. The day is now a symbol of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s repeated practice of arbitrary arrest of voices criticising his way of governing the country.