OSCE Office seriously concerned over continued governmental pressure on NGOs in Belarus

MINSK, 29 October 2003 - Ambassador Eberhard Heyken, the Head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, expressed today his serious concern over the continued governmental pressure on non-governmental organizations in Belarus.

Following the closure of another Belarusian NGO by a decision of the Supreme Court yesterday, Ambassador Heyken said: "The closure of the Human Rights Center Vesna, one of the leading NGOs focusing on the protection of human rights and election monitoring, is a serious setback and unfortunately the latest result of what must be described as a governmental campaign against independent NGOs."

Vesna was accused by the country's Ministry of Justice of different shortcomings. The Supreme Court in its decision finally referred to violations of procedures concerning the nomination of election observers in 2001, which was said to constitute a gross violation of the electoral legislation. The Court also pointed to the fact that Vesna received a warning on 28 August 2001 based on these violations.

During the past six months, the OSCE Office has witnessed a number of closures of NGOs, particularly regional resource centers. Recently it also observed that prominent human rights organizations had come under increased pressure. On 9 September, Legal Assistance to the Population was "liquidated", and on 9 October, the NGO Women's Response was closed. Others, such as the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Lev Sapega Foundation, have been warned and scrutinized by the authorities.

The profile of the affected NGOs suggests that independent activity related to elections and human rights protection is particularly being punished by the authorities. Some observers view the current clampdown on NGOs as stemming from governmental fear of NGO's active participation in the election process or the result of the government's ideological policy.

Ambassador Heyken said that his Office was seriously worried that Belarusian legislation was being used against NGOs for political purposes. "I find no reason to question decisions taken by courts but do believe that other, less harsh ways of addressing possible shortcomings or violations by NGOs must be worked out by the authorities," he said.

The increased pressure on and closure of several NGOs has forced civil society representatives to discuss and find ways out of this critical situation. Ambassador Heyken said that the OSCE Office shared their concern and supported such efforts.

"I look in particular forward to the visit to Minsk this week by Uta Zapf, the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Working Group on Belarus, and hope that the issue can be raised with the Belarusian authorities at the highest possible level," he said.