Certain members of the Office for the Rights of People with Disabilities
Cases- Case status
- Unresolved
- Location of case in SG report
- 2021-004-001
- Relevant SG report
- Year of the report
- 2021
- From Country
- Country Geolocation
Latitude: 53.709807
Longitude: 27.953389
- Country Geolocation (linked Cases)
- Belarus
- From Region
- UN body that raised the case prior to the SG report
- UN Special Procedures: Country
- UN Special Procedures: Thematic
- UN Special Procedures: UN Special Procedures - General
- Dates of prior UN action
- 19 March 2021
- Type of record
- Unnamed individual/group/organization
- Gender
- Gender unclear
- Was the victim a foreign national?
- No
- Was the victim a minor?
- No
- Type of rights defended
- Economic/social rights
- Other
- Was the victim a civil servant, member of the security forces or of the judiciary?
- No
- Reported trigger of reprisal
Cooperation with the UN
- Engagement with UN body
- Unclear
- Dates of engagement
- unclear
- Type of attempted engagement
- Unclear
- Dates of mentioned reprisals
- 21 January 2021
- Location of mentioned reprisals
- Belarus
- Reprisal information
on 21 January 2021, the Department of Financial Investigations (DFI) at the Committee of State Control announced on its official website that it had opened an investigation into the activities of certain members of the Office for the Rights of People with Disabilities. The DFI searched the NGO’s premises and confiscated equipment and documents. It also searched the homes of its members and confiscated personal property
- Types of reprisals suffered
- Charge/Investigation/Prosecution: Charge/Investigation/Prosecution - General
- Property damage/raid/search/confiscation
- Alleged/likely perpetrators
- State actors
- Was the reprisal based on new legislation?
- No
- Does the report make general comment about country’s environment for engagement with UN?
- No
- Government response dates
- 13 August 2021
- Government response content
On 13 August 2021, the Government responded to the note verbale sent in connection to the present report noting that the allegations were unsubstantiated statements used to justify political pressure on Belarus under the pretext of human rights concerns. The Government stated that the Public Association Human Rights Centre Viasna is a liquidated legal entity since a Supreme Court decision in 2003 and their activity is prohibited. The Government noted that some individuals associated with Viasna were investigated by the Investigative Committee of Belarus in February 2021 in a case under article 342 of the Criminal Code for allegedly violating public order. As such, searches were carried out at the places of stay of some of these individuals and they were found to have been involved in criminal activity under article 342, as well as under article 243 (tax evasion).
- Was the case raised by a State at the UN?
- No
- Is the country cited for a "pattern of reprisal" in the context of this case?
- No
- Is a pattern of reprisals mentioned otherwise in the context of this case?
- No
- Does the report cite "self-censorship" as an issue in the context of this case?
- Yes
- How many times has the case been followed up in subsequent SG reports?
- 1
- In which SG report was this case followed up on? 0
- 2022
- Follow up information provided in SG report 0
In September 2021, mandate holders addressed the dissolution of several NGOs on 23 July 2021, including the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The case of this NGO working on the rights of persons with disabilities was included in the 2021 report of the Secretary-General on allegations of raids, seizure of equipment, criminalization, and ill-treatment of its director for cooperation with the UN (BLR 8/2021). The dissolution of the Office of Persons with Disabilities was also addressed by the Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus in her 2022 report to the Human Rights Council.
- Followup Trends 0
- Stayed same