Brussels, 20/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 19 June, members of civil society warned the European Parliament's sub-committee on human rights about the human rights situation in Belarus and Azerbaijan, and called on the EU to take action. “We are in permanent crisis on the human rights front in Belarus. The situation is getting worse. Pressure has increased. There is no progress in any domain whatsoever”, said Valdimir Labkovich, a member of the Viasna Human Rights Centre. While 11 political prisoners are being held in Belarus, it is not enough to talk numbers, in Labkovich's opinion. He says that questions should be asked about the extent to which participation in political life is possible, how the situation as regards freedom of the press is or the opportunity to demonstrate peacefully (which has been banned since 2011). He added that the right of association in the political framework is “oppressed”.
In Labkovich's view, the European Parliament should demand - in a dialogue with the Belarusian authorities - not only the release of political prisoners but also a change to criminal legislation and laws on the elections and media. The chairman of the board of the Legal Transformation Centre, Elena Tonkacheva, called for the interaction between the European Parliament and the United Nations special rapporteur on Belarus, Miklos Haraszti, to be improved “because this could develop into a source of important information on human rights in Belarus.”
In the opinion of Justas Vincas Paleckis MEP (S&D, Lithuania), who is compiling a report on Belarus, “still more efforts should be made on Belarus in order to improve the situation. It must not be said that Belarus is lost.” Reinhold Brender, from the European External Action Service, stated that progress on EU-Minsk relations “will depend on the country's progress”.
Re-election in Azerbaijan. In the view of Florian Irminger from the Human Rights House Foundation, the situation in Azerbaijan is “dark”. He mentioned the arbitrary detention of journalists, activists and human rights defenders. “If you have a critical mind, you must expect to end up in prison”, he said. While elections are planned this year, Azerbaijan is not preparing for free and fair elections but for a “process of re-election”, in Irminger's view. All free expression, demonstration and right to rally is forbidden, said the head of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, Leyla Yunus, recalling the 86 political prisoners and saying that the leaders of the opposition cannot travel freely in the country. “The idea is not to allow people, especially young people, to benefit from association activities - which is crucial because we are in the year of the elections”, she said. She added that some non-governmental organisations do not have the right to hire rooms for meetings and that the police breaks them up when their members meet in someone's home. “The situation is worse than under the USSR”, Yunus warned, speaking - as Irminger had done - about the new law on defamation.
Yunus and Irminger called on the EU to take action. “It is possible to identify those who should be subject to sanctions and an EU ban, those who torture citizens”, Yunus stated. In Irminger's opinion, the EU should support the work of activists and journalists more, and better monitor the use of European money sent to Baku. Brender said that the EU is holding very serious discussions with the Azeri authorities about the human rights issue. (CG/transl.fl)