|
Belarus Human Rights
Belarus's transition from the authoritarian
institutions of
the Soviet era to democratic ones has been spotty, and
human
rights abuses continue. The government, even before the
election
of Alyaksandr Lukashyenka as president, continued to
restrict
freedom of speech, press, and peaceful assembly, among
other
rights.
Although the constitution provides for freedom of
speech,
this right is observed more in the breach. The government
continues to use slander and defamation laws to suppress
criticism of its policies and government officials. It
also
retains a virtual economic monopoly over the press through
its
ownership of nearly all printing and broadcasting
facilities.
This absence of independence encourages editors to censor
themselves. In other cases, the government simply removes
the
editor of a publication, cancels a publication's contract
for
paper, eliminates a publication's government subsidy, or
denies a
publication access to state-owned printing facilities.
Freedom of assembly is also guaranteed by the
constitution,
but this too is enforced arbitrarily. Despite the law's
explicit
statement of procedures for obtaining permission for
rallies or
marches, officials still deny permission when it suits
them or
higher levels of the government.
There have been many reports of beatings of prisoners,
mainly
in Hrodna prison, by prison guards or with their
complicity.
Although such actions are against the law, it is rare for
the
government to punish perpetrators. Amnesty International
has been
denied access to the prison routinely, on grounds of
security.
In July 1993, Belarus abolished its death penalty for
four
economic crimes. A revised criminal code under
consideration by
the parliament would reduce the number of offenses
carrying a
possible death sentence to eight: preparing and conducting
an
aggressive war, acts of terrorism against a representative
of
another state, international terrorism, genocide,
premeditated
murder, treason, sabotage, and terrorist acts and
conspiracy to
seize power.
* * *
Published materials dealing with Belarus are still
somewhat
scarce. A standard work, covering Belarus from its
earliest
history through the mid-1950s is Nicholas Vakar's
Belorussia:
The Making of a Nation, which also covers many aspects
of the
culture. Another work, which briefly discusses earlier
history,
despite its title, is Ivan Lubachko's Belorussia Under
Soviet
Rule, 1917-1957, which emphasizes the Soviet era. A
more
recent book is Jan Zaprudnik's Belarus: At a Crossroads
in
History. Belarus, an economic review by the
International Monetary Fund, provides a picture of
Belarus's
economy after 1991 and includes tables on a variety of
economic
performance indicators in the Soviet and post-Soviet
periods.
Current information on Belarus, with an emphasis on
political, economic, and national security topics, is
provided in
the Foreign Broadcast Information Service's Daily
Report:
Central Eurasia. Transition, a new bi-weekly
Open
Media Research Institute (OMRI) publication begun in
January
1995, tends to have one longer article on Belarus per
issue. (For
further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of June 1995
|
