Activist tells U.N. rapporteur about Belarus crackdown

May 30, BPN. U.N. Special Rapporteur Clément Nyaletsossi Voule has met with experts from Europe and Central Asia in Vienna to discuss the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Natalla Sacunkievič, of the Viasna Human Rights Center, told Voule that public protest was virtually impossible in Belarus. At yesterday’s meeting, she also described the police’s use of plastic construction ties to restrain detainees, which causes pain and harm.

Sacunkievič said Viasna’s last field observation of a demonstration was Aug. 9, 2020, the main day of voting in the presidential election, after which monitoring continued online for security reasons. She said the United Nations trusts their expertise and assessments.

Voule presented a report at the 50th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in July 2022, highlighting the militarized law-enforcement responses to protests and the use of excessive force in many countries.

Viasna demanded that the Belarusian authorities stop persecuting citizens for exercising their rights on May 21, the symbolic Day of Solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus. As of today, 1,496 people have been recognized as such by human rights groups.