Earlier this week Ales Bialiatski´s wife was denied by the Bobruysk Colony No. 2 to pass on a food parcel, where her husband has been detained. She was then informed that Bialiatski´s right to receive food from visitors was suspended in March for six months.

“We urge the authorities to ensure a correct treatment of Ales Bialiatski and not to abuse prison regulations to his disadvantage”, says Marie Månson, Programme Director at Civil Rights Defenders.

Disciplinary measures have continuously been used against the chair of Human Rights Centre Viasna since his imprisonment in November 2011.

Ales Bialiatski received several reprimands in prison and was subject to restrictive measures limiting his rights to receive visits, food parcels and other. Ales was also declared a “persistent offender” which excluded the possibility of being granted amnesty in July 2012, when a number of other prisoners were released. Moreover, the amount of personal funds that he could use to purchase food and other basic items was decreased five-fold by the colony administration.

In August 2012, he was denied receipt of food parcels and visitation rights because he brought a piece of bread to his cell after dinner and put up a curtain around his bed for privacy. In October 2012, the weight of parcels the human rights defender was allowed to receive was also reduced, a measure that does not apply to any other prisoner.

In August 2011 Ales Bialiatski was arrested, suspected of serious tax evasion, after Lithuania and Poland had disclosed information about Belarusian individuals’ bank accounts, at the request of the Belarusian authorities. Ales Bialiatski is the head of Belarus’ leading human rights organisation Viasna. Since Viasna has not been able to register and operate legally in Belarus, the organisation was forced to open private bank accounts abroad. In November 2011 Ales Bialiatski was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and confiscation of property. Civil Rights Defenders has repeatedly protested against the treatment of Belarus’ political prisoners and demanded the immediate release of Ales Bialiatski

In 2006 he was awarded the Swedish Government’s Per Anger prize for his “courageous struggle for the ordinary man’s right.

Read all articles about Ales Bialiatski’s case here. 

Civil Rights Defenders cooperates closely with the Pride organisers GenderDoc-M and has been supporting and attending the event for nine years. The March is historic as it is the first time that the police guaranteed the security of the Pride participants. In 2008, homophobic crowds, including extremist religious groups and members of the neo-fascist movement, surrounded the Pride-participant’s bus on its way to the demonstration. At that time the police failed to protect the participant and ensure their right to peaceful assembly.

“This is an important court decision in the fight against discrimination and for equal rights and we are happy that the court ruling is pronounced on the International Day against Homophobia”, says Åsa Bergqvist, Programme Officer for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Civil Rights Defenders.

The 12th Pride festival “Rainbow over the Dniester”, started on 14 May in Chisinau. The programme includes a conference about the importance of good partnerships in the fight against discrimination, a flower-laying ceremony at the Victims of Repressions’ Monument as well as a theatre performance and other cultural events.

A flower-laying ceremony at the Victims of Repressions’ Monument. Photo: Civil Rights Defenders.

On the last day of the festival, on 19 May, a march under the slogan “LGBT for Traditional Values”, is aimed to take place in central Chisinau. Only days before the opening of the festival, groups related to the Orthodox Church have tried to cancel the march and called for a counterdemonstration on the same day.

“We expect that the Moldovan authorities fulfil their constitutional obligations to guarantee the right to freedom of assembly, and their duty to protect all participants in the march”, says Åsa Bergqvist, Programme Officer for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Civil Rights Defenders.

The tolerance towards LGBT is extremely low in Moldova and during a Pride Parade in 2008, the demonstrators were violently attacked by religious hooligans.

The UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of association, human rights defenders and freedom of expression urged the Russian authorities to revise the law due to its lack of compliance with international law and standards and its adverse consequences on the important work of hundreds of organizations and human rights defenders.

“Unfortunately, our fears seem to have been confirmed,” said the Special Rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai.

“We already warned against the extensive requirements contained in this law for NCOs allegedly ‘engaging in political activities’, which could infringe on the right of human rights defenders to publically raise human rights issues and conduct advocacy work,” said the UN expert on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya.

Read the whole statement here.

As Civil RIghts Defenders has previously reported, a number of nongovernmental organisations across Russia have received vaguely written communications and loosely worded warnings from the Prosecutor’s Office. In compliance with the 2012 highly criticized law, organisations that receive foreign funding and engage in political activity have to register as foreign agents. The legal grounds for the conclusion are largely unclear, as are the consequences for not complying.

For instance, Memorial Human Rights Centre, a Civil Rights Defenders partner, received written communication from Moscow Prosecutor´s Office, indicating that the “violation of the federal legislation,” allegedly identified over the course of inspections, should be corrected within a month. No further information was offered, implying they should register as a “foreign agent”.

“This is an attempt by the authorities to force human rights organisations to register as foreign agents by confusing and frightening them. The Russian authorities should stop harassing the civil society,” says Joanna Kurosz, Programme Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Civil Rights Defenders.

“The amendments seek to ban criticism and increase the cost of dissent. They are designed to silence all those who continue to speak out despite the already and increasingly repressive climate,” the undersigned organisations said in a joint statement: Azerbaijan_IPGA statement_16-05-2013_Final.

The undersigned organisations call on the Azerbaijani authorities to:

• Respect and promote the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including online;
• Honour their commitment to decriminalise insult and defamation;
• Abolish administrative detention as a penalty for organising or holding an unauthorised assembly;
• Stop using bogus criminal or administrative penalties to punish the expression of dissent;
• Cease the practice of harassing media workers and bloggers;
• Immediately and unconditionally release Hilal Mammedov, Avaz Zeynalli, Zaur Gurbanli, and all other journalists, bloggers and activists currently detained or imprisoned in connection with exercising their right to free expression.

The report “No sweet songs for human rights defenders“, recently published by Civil Rights Defenders, shows that repression of civil society has reached new lows. Threats, torture, fabricated cases, and harassment of family members is common for those who dare to stand up for human rights. The abuse goes on without much criticism from the outside world.

Aleanca has teamed up with The Unstraight Museum from Sweden to organize two weeks of events around the exhibition entitled Art. 1, presented in The National Historical Museum in Tirana. Taking the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as its point of departure, Art. 1 wants to be a small step in the long struggle to secure equal rights for all mankind.

The two-week long event will be organized around 17th of May and apart from the exhibition there will be discussion groups, movies, bike ride against homophobia on the 17th of May and more.

Read more about the activities here: http://www.aleancalgbt.org/art/28-programi-i-art-1-online

On 14 May, Civil Rights Defenders will release a report on the situation of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan since the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012. Listen to the report author Vugar Gojayev’s, Human Rights Watch, Berlin, presentation of the findings of the report. During the seminar a short film about the human rights situation in Azerbaijan will be shown.

The seminar will be held in English and moderated by Joanna Kurosz, Programme Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Civil Rights Defenders.

Time: Tuesday, May 14 at 9:00 to 10:30 (coffee / tea and sandwiches from 8:30 am)
Location: Civil Rights Defenders, Big Nygatan 26, Stockholm

Sign up here before 12 May.

For security reasons, we will not be able to stream the seminar on Bambuser this time. But watch the film on Azerbaijan that we will show at the beginning of the seminar.

Threats, torture, fabricated cases, and harassment of family members is common for those who dare to stand up for human rights. The abuse goes on without much criticism from the outside world.

Civil Rights Defenders believe that it is high time that Europe increases pressure on Azerbaijan to make the country come closer to the EU, not only economically, but also in terms of respect for human rights.

In compliance with the 2012 highly criticized law, organisations that receive foreign funding and engage in political activity have to register as foreign agents.

In some written communications political activity is referred to as some part in the organisation’s statute, however the legal grounds for the conclusion are largely unclear, so are the consequences for not complying.

For instance, Memorial Human Rights Centre, a Civil Rights Defenders partner, received written communication from Moscow Prosecutor´s Office, indicating that the “violation of the federal legislation,” allegedly identified over the course of inspections, should be corrected within a month. No further information was offered, implying they should register as a “foreign agent”.

“This is an attempt by the authorities to force human rights organisations to register as foreign agents by confusing and frightening them. The Russian authorities should stop harassing the civil society,” says Joanna Kurosz, Programme Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Authorities have found different ways to indicate political activity. In Memorial´s case, the prosecutors mentioned the organisation’s purpose statement, such as ”publicising and disseminating reliable information on material violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms … exposing the truth about the crimes of totalitarian regimes.” But it is unclear in which of these purpose the prosecutor’s office has spotted “violations.” They also paid close attention to the organisation´s vision of ¨monitoring politically motivated administrative detentions and penal repressions¨ implying political activity.

The first to be charged and fined under the new federal law was Golos, an organisation that monitors elections in Russia and played a prominent role in reporting allegations of electoral fraud in the 2011 parliamentary and 2012 presidential elections. The fine for receiving prize money for Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee was considered foreign funding, despite the fact that the organisation returned the money shortly after it entered its bank account.

The Ministry of Justice claimed that Golos’ advocacy for the adoption of a unified Electoral Code sought to “influence public opinion and decisions of government bodies,” which, in their opinion, constituted “political activity”.

The wave of inspections started at the end of February by various agencies – including Federal Taxation Service, Prosecutor´s Office and Ministry of Justice – hit about 200 NGOs, even including the Moscow offices of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Duties: The intern will assist in the daily work with human rights the countries. The tasks are varied and include, among other things, writing articles, administrative tasks, and preparation of activities in Sweden and abroad.

Requirements: The intern should have a genuine interest in human rights, and a basic knowledge about the issues with which Civil Rights Defenders works and the region. The intern should be able to express him- or herself in writing, in Swedish and English. A background in law, political science or similar is desirable. Knowledge or a particular interest in Cambodia, Myanmar or Vietnam is a merit.

An application should include a cover letter and a CV and be sent to brittis.edman@civilrightsdefenders.org no later than 31 May 2013.

We welcome one intern to the Department for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
The department for Eastern Europe and Central Asia plans, coordinates and implements Civil Rights Defenders work in the region, which also includes advocacy and lobbying in Sweden. The intern will work closely with the Programme Officers for Eastern Europe and Central Asia under the guidance of the Programme Director for the region.

Duties: The intern will assist in the daily work with human rights in the region. The tasks are varied and include, among other; writing articles, administrative work and preparation of activities in Sweden and abroad.

Requirements: The intern should have a genuine interest in human rights and basic knowledge about the issues that Civil Rights Defenders works with. The intern should be able to express him- or herself in writing, in English. Fluency in Russian is required since the work involves contact with local partner organizations and possibly some translation. A background in law, political science or similar is highly desirable.

An application should include a cover letter and a CV and be sent to joanna.kurosz@civilrightsdefenders.org no later than 31 May 2013.

We welcome one intern to the Department for support to human rights defenders at risk
The department for support to human rights defenders at risk give grants to activists who are in need of concrete actions to improve their security situation and provide training in communication and new media. We offer various types of support to human rights defenders working in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South East Asia and East Africa, through statements to authorities and organisations, and in extreme cases even evacuation.

Duties: As an intern you will help administrating the programs, gather information for statements and news to the website. The intern works closely with the Programme Officers, who are led by the Programme Director. Since a large part of the work is linked to human rights defenders in Russia, we are primarily looking for someone who speaks Russian and has knowledge of the region.

Requirements: The intern should have a genuine interest in human rights and basic knowledge about the issues that Civil Rights Defenders works with. The intern should be able to express him- or herself in writing, in English. Fluency in Russian is rhighly desirable since the work involves contact with local partner organizations and possibly some translation. A background in law, political science or similar is highly desirable.

An application should include a cover letter and a CV and be sent to marie.manson@civilrightsdefenders.org no later than 31 May 2013.

We welcome one intern to the Communication Department
The communication department is planning, coordinating and implementing a large part of Civil Rights Defenders’ advocacy and lobby activities in close cooperation with the Programme Directors and Programme Officers. This includes writing statements and press releases, organising seminars and creating debate in social media. During the internship the Head of Communications is your supervisor.

Duties: As an intern you will write news articles and other texts to the website and the organisation’s newsletter, assist with practical things in connection to breakfast seminars, translate texts between Swedish and English, register people who have subscribed to our mailing lists and in other ways assist the Head of Communications with various tasks.

Requirements: As an intern you should have a genuine and documented interest in human rights and basic knowledge about the issues that Civil Rights Defenders works with. You should be fluent in English and Swedish and have good writing skills. A background as a journalist, or the like, as well as knowledge of web publishing and social media is highly desirable.

An application should include a cover letter and a CV and be sent to natasha.esbjornson@civilrightsdefenders.org no later than 31 May 2013.