The government of Belarus maintains a policy of suppressing freedom of association and the press despite tentative steps to ease restrictions on large gatherings, UN Rapporteur Anais Marin said in a report to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2019) The government of Belarus maintains a policy of suppressing freedom of association and the press despite tentative steps to ease restrictions on large gatherings, UN Rapporteur Anais Marin said in a report to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday."The decriminalization of the activities of unregistered organizations and the simplification of authorization procedures for mass events were welcome steps, but abusive restrictions to freedom of association and peaceful assembly remain recurrent," a press release summarizing the report said.
Marin pointed out in the report that additional restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom in Belarus have been implemented after the country's media law was amended, the release said.
"These measures are clearly intended to intimidate critical voices into self-censorship and prevent them from contributing to public debate," Marin said.
Marin also criticized the Belarus policy of jailing children for drug offenses, saying international law requires child imprisonment to be a measure of last resort and detentions must be short.
The Belarus government refused to allow Marin to visit the country in her attempt to compile the report, according to the release.
