Kampagne gegen den Paragraph 193.1

The Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus calls upon non-governmental organizations and associations of various countries:
Dear Friends! We suggest you to join the campaign “STOP 193.1!” which is aimed at the abolition

of the article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. This article establishes criminal responsibility for participation in the activities of an unregistered political party, civil or religious organization, and envisages two years of imprisonment for such activities.

Article 193.1 prevents normal development of civil society in Belarus, especially bearing in mind a very complicated procedure of registration of public associations and the biased approach of the State bodies to organizations which are independent from the authorities. In fact, Article 193.1 treats any independent initiative of citizens as a crime.

Article 193.1 violates citizens' right to association and it contradicts certain provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international documents signed by Belarus. Apart from that, article 193.1 does not correspond the standards regarding activities of non-governmental organizations, approved by the Council of Europe. This is one of the obstacles for the full accession of Belarus to the Council of Europe and for our return to the European scene.

Over the period 2006-2009 seventeen members of unregistered associations have been sentenced to imprisonment or fines under article 193.1. No case was solved in the courts in favour of the persons accused under article 193.1. Also hundreds of members of unregistered associations have been questioned by the State bodies, many of them had received warnings from prosecutors who demanded that they stopped their activities in unregistered organizations.

You and your organization can help us by sending to Belarusian governing institutions a paper in a form of declaration, calling to abolish Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code and to exclude the ban on the activities of unregistered public associations from all Belarusian acts of legislation.

Please send your declarations to the following address:

Parliament, the House of Representatives,

Republic of Belarus,

Minsk 220010,

vul. Savieckaja, 11, House of Government

28. Juni 2009 in Politik und Gesellschaft

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