A/HRC/35/40 64. Among the many victims and witnesses of the brutality with which the armed, masked riot police carried out the raid was Aliaksei Loika, a Viasna staff member. He was thrown onto the concrete floor face down, causing concussion, a policeman put his booted foot on Mr. Loika’s head, ordered him not to move and hit him; as a result, Mr. Loika was later hospitalized. 65. Tatsiana Revyaka, a board member of Viasna, was detained on 26 March while she was observing the rally on Oktabryskaya Square. At Minsk central police station, she was forced to stand facing the wall for two hours with her arms raised above her head before being released without charge. 66. In Minsk, Vitebsk, Biaroza, Polotsk and Molodechno, human rights activists were detained and in some cases sentenced to detention of up to 15 days on trumped-up charges.18 67. The Government continued to refuse to register prominent human rights organizations, such as Viasna, which representatives of those organizations appealed once again to the Ministry of Justice, to no avail. The marginal engagement of some State actors with only a few members of NGOs has to be put in perspective with the otherwise overwhelmingly difficult working environment in which those organizations try to deliver their services. 68. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern about the frequent repression, harassment, violence and threats of sexual assaults against women human rights and political activists (see CEDAW/C/BLR/CO/8, para. 16). 69. The Special Rapporteur deplores the fact that there is still no permanent avenue of cooperation between the State and civil society human rights actors, showing disrespect for the legitimate concerns raised by activists. No new independent public association was registered during the period under review. 70. Human rights activist Alena Tankachova, who was expelled from Belarus in February 2015 on fabricated grounds, namely driving above the speed limit, is still banned from entering Belarus. Her most recent appeal to the authorities to reduce the term of the ban was made on 21 February 2017 and was supported publicly by 16 NGOs in Belarus, including the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the only accredited human rights NGO. 71. Andrei Bandarenka, who founded the human rights association Platform Innovation, and whose imprisonment for three years was politically motivated, was the subject of an additional criminal charge on 14 November 2016, based on article 411 of the Criminal Code, for allegedly having disobeyed the administration of the correctional institution in which he was detained. The Special Rapporteur notes that Mr. Bandarenka was released on 31 March 2017 after having served his term. Resorting to article 411 of the Criminal Code is another way to silence opponents and activists by charging them on behavioural transgressions that no oversight can objectively assess. 72. The authorities continue to intimidate activists. On 6 March, the office of a coalition of civic groups was searched and office equipment was seized, without proper justification. The apartments of three human rights defenders were also searched in the context of the rallies against presidential decree No. 3. 73. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges the few contacts developed during the period under review between selected members of organizations of human rights defenders and some representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of events involving international partners. 74. Unfortunately, the inter-agency plan does not foresee any activity aimed at opening a dialogue with members of civil society working on human rights issues. NGOs are mentioned only four times in the plan: in the context of improving the mechanisms for expanding the use of social contracts to support the activities of NGOs specializing in the provision of social services to the population; in relation to broadening the scope of their 18 See www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/03/belarus-freedom-day-crackdown. 11