How to help?

How to contribute to the work of International Observation Mission and Committee of International Control over the human rights situation in Belarus?

Now there are several ways to help our groups working in Belarus.


1. To take part in the International Observation Mission in Minsk. The Mission’s main tasks are: to monitor, to attend court hearings, to assist local human rights defenders, to collect and to spread information, etc.

Now we need people of two types:

  • well-known human rights activists and experts, whose participation and status would be important for the Belarusian authorities, journalists, etc.
  • people who have experience in monitoring, observing human rights violations, information support for human rights work, etc. –  to monitor the situation, perform informational provision of its work etc.

If you or your colleagues would like to take part in Mission’s work - from several days to 1-2 weeks - please contact us: [email protected]

2. Join the Committee of international control over the human rights situation in Belarus. Commitette is the community of human rights and civil organizations from different countries. The Committee will develop and provide recommendations to Belarus authorities and international organizations to change the situation in the country based on Observation Mission’s information and evidences.

If your organization wants to become a member of the Committee, please contact us: [email protected]

3. To assist and support of Information centres on the situation in Belarus. Now there are “Information centres” in Kharkov, Kiev and Moscow – which will provide searching and processing of all information, translation into English, working with local media, contact with journalists, etc. We are looking for people who could organize such centres and undertake the work in them in other cities. First of all – Warsaw, Brussels, Vienna, Strasbourg :)

4. If you have time and ability to write texts, to help with translations or web-design – we also would appreciate this :))

5. During long time the Mission’s work in Minsk was built entirely on the personal contribution of time, effort and money of certain people. We would welcome any financial support – primarily to pay for international mobile communications – to call from Ukraine and Russia to Belarust and back, as well as travel and accommodation expenses of Mission in Minsk. If you can help with that – please contact us.

Belarus:

+37533 636 05 00 (МТС)
+37533 340 67 72 (МТС)
+37525 910 28 58 (Life)

Russia:

+7903-656-03-78 (Beeline)

Ukraine:

+38068 410 27 41 (Beeline)
+38063 066 74 65 (Life)

 

The general contact address: [email protected]

News of Belarus

Belarus: the first criminal trial for December 19th case

Yesterday, on February 17th, in Minsk the first criminal trial on the case of participation in the riots at the Independence Square on December 19th took place. According to paragraph 2 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code, the penalty for this deed can range from three to eight years of imprisonment. The trial of the accused Vasily Parfenkov passed in a record quick time – within one day the court considered the evidence, listened to the arguments of the prosecution and defense and awarded a sentence (four years in penal colony).

A press conference following the analytical review on rights of detained and prosecuted after the events on December 19th

On February 9 at 14.00 Human Rights Center Viasna is holding a press conference following the analytical review on rights of detained and prosecuted after the events on December 19th

At the press-conference the following people will be speaking:

"KGB arrested the reporter of Radio "Ratsiya". The journalist had been released, all the tapes on the recorder were erased"

On January 24th at 11:30 AM journalist Gennady Barbarich was detained at the club named after Dzerzhinsky.

Reporter of Radio “Ratsyja” Gennady Barbarich interviewed the wives of prisoners. KGB officers approached him, they asked him the documents and the reasons for his being there. After that, he was taken with officers.