Supreme Court denied registration to “Nasha Viasna” human rights organization

• 12.08.2009, 15:55

The Supreme Court delivered a judgement on the claim of Ales Byalyatski, Uladzimir Labkovich, and Valyantsin Stefanovich on the refusal of the Ministry of Justice to register their organization.

The court dismissed the claim of the human rights defenders. Judge Anatol Tserakh referred to the fact that 4 out of 71 founders of the organization allegedly gave wrong information about themselves. The court also said that a letter of guarantee concerning registered seat doesn’t have legal power.

“Representative of the Ministry of Justice Alyaksandr Kharyton said at the trial that we haven’t explained the name of the organization in its statute. Besides, he noted that the second part of the name (Viasna) was capitalized. In his view, it can mean not a season but something else,” human rights activist Valyantsin Stefanovich told. According to him, the representative of the Ministry of Justice couldn’t answer what normative regulations demand to explain the meaning of an organization’s name in its statute.

The human rights activist said he was going to file an appeal against this decision to the chairman of the Supreme Court. He also plans to send complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee. The complaint will combine all three refusals to register the organization. According to Stefanovich, it will prove that the Belarusian authorities violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and discriminate human rights activists.

“We find the claims of the Ministry of Justice ungrounded. The third refusal to register demonstrates that the authorities don’t want to register our organization,” Stefanovich stated.

Valyantsin Stefanovich said that human rights defenders would continue their activity in spite of absence of registration.