UN Human Rights Committee registers complaints from two Belarusian opposition activists

• 14.05.2008, 9:03

The UN Human Rights Committee has notified two opposition activists in Homyel that it registered their complaints over fines imposed on them by a district court.

As human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka told BelaPAN, the Committee will now forward the complaint filed by Andrey Alyashkevich and Uladzimir Shumilin to the Belarusian government and expect a reply from it. The activists will have the right to submit their comments on the government’s reply to the UN agency within six months.

This past February Homyel’s Savetski District Court slapped Messrs. Alyashkevich and Shumilin with a $490 fine each for the distribution of leaflets calling on city residents to attend a meeting with former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich.

The pair appealed the ruling, but the Homyel Regional Court upheld the fines on February 29.

The opposition activists believe that the ruling was in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that entitles people to “seek, receive and impart information” without any restriction.

Uladzimir Katsora, a Homyel-based coordinator of the Movement for Freedom, an organization led by former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich, plans to send a similar complaint over a seven-day jail sentence to the UN Human Rights Committee in the near future, Mr. Sudalenka said.