Human rights defenders from Belarus learned about the invitation the National Center of Legislation and Legal Research (NCLLR) sent to stakeholders to express opinions on the issue of the National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) from the non-official information that appeared on one of the news websites.
The invitation was not sent to the Belarusian human rights defenders who participated directly in the submission of the alternative report for the Universal Periodic Review in 2010 and who are monitoring the implementation of the UPR recommendations accepted by Belarus.
Belarusian human rights organisations held a meeting on the issue of the NHRI and came up with the final document which contains demands of a transparent, open and public discussion and defines a necessary pre-condition of the dialogue – release of all the political prisoners and ceasing of all pressure on human rights defenders.
At the same time, the Belarusian human rights organisations stress the importance of NHRI creation in accordance with the Paris principles – this has been demanded by them for years, including in the UPR alternative report.
