The participants of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum have expressed deep concern due to the recurrent series of repressive actions from the side of the Belarusan authorities.

STATEMENT
OF THE BELARUSAN NATIONAL PLATFORM
OF THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM

12 December, 2012
Minsk, Belarus

We, participants of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, express our deep concern due to the recurrent series of repressive actions from the side of the Belarusian authorities in relation to Belarusian civil society organizations, their representatives and partners, independent journalists and creative unions, as well as religious communities of Belarus.

On the 26^th of November, 2012 the office of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" was confiscated in compliance with the unjust politically motivated sentence passed to Ales Bialiatski a year ago. These actions are the recurrent violation of Freedom of Association from the side of the Belarusan authorities; the pressure on the dissidents is continuing to build as well as attempts to frighten and to outlaw human rights activists do. We demand from the Belarusan authorities to free Ales Bialiatski immediately, to reverse unjust judgments on the confiscation of property passed by courts as well as to stop practice of persecuting human rights activists and to provide them with the right to implement human rights activity, which is in demand with the civil society, guaranteed by the Constitution and by the Laws of Belarus.

During 2012 unacceptable practice of criminal persecution of journalists, independent editions and creative youth unions is ongoing in the country. We believe these actions to irreparably damage Belarusan culture and intellectual community, and demand ultimate ceasing of criminal persecution of the journalist Andrzej Poczobut, express concern due to the pressure on the intellectual magazine "ARCHE" and the persecution of its editor Valer Bulgakau, call upon Minsk executive committee to abolish disgraceful practice of pressure on tenants and to provide Open Cultural Area "Art Siadziba" with a possibility to rent accommodation for their activity without interference.

We express resolute protest against persecution of civil society activists and insist on the abolishment of their criminal persecution and their immediate release, as well as the abolishment of exercising pressure, ungrounded inspections, temporal shutdown and liquidation of a number of independent civil society organizations, particularly the examples of the last months - Informational and educational Institution "Platform" and Civil Association "Dobraja Volia" ("Good will"). We also call upon the impartial and unbiased investigation of the case of the youth association "Union of Young Intellectuals" activist Andrei Gaidukou, arrested in Vitebsk on the 8^th of November, 2012.

In the second half of 2012 foreign partners of Belarusan civil society organizations face numerous simulated problems when getting Belarusan visa, as well as when they try to visit Belarus to meet their colleagues. The latest examples of visa declines to the chairman of the "Radio Racyja" board and the editor-in-chief of the weekly for Belarusans in Poland "Niva" Jauhien Vapa, the member of the Board of "Batskaushchyna" World Association of Belarusans, the chairman of the Belarusan culture in Lithuania Association Hvedar Niuńka, historian and chairman of Belarusan Association "Khatka" in Gdansk Lena Glagouskaja as well as our partners from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Lithuania and other countries are unacceptable for the practice of modern international relations, irreparably damage the image of the country in the eyes of the international community. We demand to immediately stop the practice of the unmotivated impediments in the implementation of the international cooperation of Belarusan civil organizations with their partners, which demonstrates the closeness and the repressive character of Belarusan authorities in relation to the representatives of the international civil community.

We sincerely welcome the stopping of the jurisdiction in relation to the religious Association of Full Gospel Christians "New Life Church". We call upon the due officials of Minsk and Minsk Region executive committee to abandon their claims to the New Life Church, to provide the management of the community with the documents of ownership of the accommodation and to guarantee possibility to freely realize their right to freedom of conscience.

On December 7, 2012 Alexander Lukashenko signed the Decree No. 9 on additional measures to develop the woodworking industry. This document consolidates new forms of the forced labor which were first set in 1999 by the Decree No. 29 on additional measures to improve working conditions, consolidate working and operating discipline. Now the cancelation of an agreement before its expiry is permissible only by consent of the employer (while before the condition was "by mutual consent"). It is the first time in all the modern Belarusan history such conditions are created when there exists compulsory work and workers have to pay money to the state only because they have resigned  or fired. We pay the attention of Belarusan authorities to the fact that these Decrees abuse Belarusan citizens’ job rights and call upon the immediate abolition of Decree No. 29 and Decree No. 9 as they contradict the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the Labor Code of the country, and international commitments of the Republic of Belarus in the human rights sphere.

Signatures

Uladzimir Matskevich, Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum