| | |
|
| |
|
|
Belarus Belarus: Child Soldier Global Report 2001 From the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers It is not known if there are under-18s in government armed forces due to insufficient information regarding minimum voluntary recruitment age. The direct participation of children in armed conflict is prohibited in military law. June 12, 2001 Belarus: Landmine Monitor Report 2000 Key developments since March 1999: Belarus destroyed nearly 7,000 antipersonnel mines from 1997-1999. Belarus hosted an "International Workshop on Humanitarian Demining and Mine Stockpile Elimination" in Minsk on 6-7 March 2000. Belarus is actively seeking assistance for stockpile destruction. Mine clearance by the military continues. August 1, 2000 Republic of Belarus Violations of Academic Freedom This report by Human Rights Watch details how President Aleksandr Lukashenka's government has suppressed research on controversial topics, re-centralized academic decision- making, and maintained a ban on political activity on campuses. At the same time, a systematic crackdown on political dissent on campus has targeted outspoken students and lecturers who are threatened with expulsion, often for their off-campus political activity. Since President Lukashenka's election in 1994, the government has hounded or disbanded opposition political parties and nongovernmental organizations, and has stripped independent lawyers of their accreditation. His regime has also harassed and arrested peaceful political activists, and has severely curtailed the independent media. State university authorities issue reprimands and warnings to politically active lecturers, independent historians, and other academics. University employees who challenge the status quo are told to curtail political activities or change the focus of their academic enquiry. HRW Index No.: D1107 July 1, 1999 Purchase online Republic of Belarus Turning Back the Clock President Aleksandr Lukashenka continues to steer Belarus back toward Soviet-era repression by leading a government that is engaged in violations of a broad spectrum of basic civil and political rights. His four years in office have witnessed the reversal of modest improvements in respect for human rights that followed the perestroika period and the break-up of the Soviet Union. In the past year alone, the government closed the only remaining independent daily newspaper in the country, was implicated in at least four assaults or threats on government critics, and detained scores of demonstrators, many of them minors. Together with restrictions on civic freedoms that have now been codified into law, these developments indicate that President Lukashenka is truly turning back the clock on rights. HRW Index No.: D1007 July 1, 1998 Purchase online Republic of Belarus Crushing Civil Society In his three years in office, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka has reversed nearly all the advances in the field of human rights, freedoms and democratization that had marked the perestroika era and the post-Soviet period. Indeed, with media forced to abandon critical expression, with public organizations harassed into closure, with the government's systematic attempts to stop public protests and to silence its political opponents, Belarus bears an eerie and increasing resemblance to Soviet society. By all indicators, the government campaign to control civil society is killing it. By employing these methods, President Lukashenka has all but made impossible a peaceful and constructive dialogue on policy among the government, the opposition, the public and NGOs. HRW Index No.: D908 August 1, 1997 Purchase online
|
 
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Contribute to Human Rights Watch
Home | About Us | News Releases | Publications | Info by Country | Global Issues | Campaigns | Community | Store | Film Festival | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | Press Contacts | Privacy Policy © Copyright 2006, Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA |
