International human rights organisations urge the Council of the Republic, the upper chamber of the Belarusian Parliament, to quash recent legislative amendments that impose limitations on freedom of assembly and association and severely restrict the work of Belarusian civil society groups, especially those working on human rights or related issues.

Further Information

An open letter was jointly issued by Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, Civil Rights Defenders, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights House Foundation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).

On 3 October 2011, the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Belarusian Parliament, adopted a set of restrictive legislative amendments to a number of Belarusian legislative acts, including the Law on Public Associations, the Law on Political Parties, the Electoral Code, the Code of Administrative Offenses, the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus. On the same day, the House of Representatives also adopted amendments to the Law on Public Gatherings.

The amendments were voted on in an atmosphere of almost complete secrecy. The text of the proposed legislative changes was not available for public viewing, thus eliminating any possible input from civil society groups. The amendments, already adopted by the lower house of the Parliament, were published at the National Legal Internet Portal on 12 October 2011. The amendments are now on the agenda of the Council of the Republic and will be considered during its next session, which is scheduled to start on 21 October.

For further information on this case, please see the PDF of the original Joint Open Letter attached below.