Svetlahorsk Activists Turn To UN Because They Not Allowed To Hold Picket

The activists are not allowed to picket against the bleached pulp plant.

On January 22, the Homel Regional Court refused to satisfy the complaints of activists who had been not allowed to hold a picket demanding to stop harmful emissions of the bleached pulp plant built near Svetlahorsk next t the village of Yakimava Slabada, gomel.today reports.

“The outcome of the trial has been expected. Even our argument that we were going not to defend our own interests during the mass rally, but the ones of Svetlahorsk and Yakimova Sloboda residents, social interests, was not an argument for the court,” – member of the initiative group, human rights activist Alena Masliukova said in a commentary to BelaPAN.

Earlier, activists had filed 10 applications with the Svetlahorsk district executive committee for holding rallies and they all were rejected.

The authorities had not allowed holding rallies at the Bumazhnik stadium – the only site permitted for public events in the city – under the pretext that at the stated time, there would be sports competitions or events under the auspices of the Belarusian Republican Youth Union. Although very often the events announced by the authorities were not held.

According to Masliukova, both the executive and the judiciary authorities violate “the rights to environmental safety, information, peaceful assembly, and free expression of opinion.”

The activists intend to apply to the UN Human Rights Committee.