A/HRC/26/44 91. On 4 August, the anniversary of the arrest of Ales Bialiatski, NGOs planned to hold an event on freedom for political prisoners. Seventeen NGO representatives applied to hold pickets, and were all rejected. Various detentions ensued for participation in pickets, including the detentions of Uladzimir Labkovich and Tatiana Ravyaka. A Minsk court fined them each 3 million Belarusian roubles (approximately US$ 350) for violating regulations on organizing public events.74 92. In December 2013, two gay pride events scheduled in Minsk had to be cancelled as permission was not granted.75 At the last minute, the owners of the premises where the events were to be held refused to lease them. 93. In 2013, more than 100 pickets were prohibited (i.e. the permits were denied),76 yet the number of individual protests grew.77 94. The Special Rapporteur notes that since 1997, Belarus has been called upon by the United Nations human rights mechanisms to guarantee that civic organizations, human rights defenders, political parties and unions are able carry out their legitimate activities without fear of reprisals, restrictions, judicial harassment and intimidation, including peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of assembly.78 This should be achieved by reviewing the national legislation of Belarus, particularly on the issuance of permissions for holding assemblies (A/HRC/15/16, para 98.34) and the decriminalization of public activities without official permission (A/68/276, para. 118(n)). L. Freedom of association 95. Despite the 2013 amendments to the law on public associations, restrictions remain to freedom of association. NGO registration remains complicated, time-consuming and costly. Unregistered public associations, foundations and their members face criminal liability under article 193.1 of the Criminal Code. The receipt of in-country and foreign funding remains restricted.79 96. In the past year, the NGO Brest Christian Democracy was refused registration80 and the NGO Tell the Truth was denied registration for the third time.81 The complaint of the non-registered NGO GayBelarus82 was returned without consideration by the Supreme Court. Following this, GayBelarus activists faced threats and harassment with reference made to their criminal responsibility under article 193.1 of the Criminal Code. After five unsuccessful attempts to reregister, the Human Rights Center “Viasna” remains 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 See footnote 39 above, p. 421. http://euroradio.fm/ru/lgbt-aktivistam-ne-dali-provesti-ni-odnoy-vecherinki-v-minske. Freedom House, “Freedom on the Net 2013: key developments: May 2012–April 2013” (http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2013/belarus). See footnote 70 above. A/HRC/15/16, paras. 98.9 and 98.31; A/HRC/20/8, para. 75; A/HRC/23/52, para. 119; A/68/276, para. 118(p) and (r). Frontline Defenders, “Belarus: risk of prison for unregistered human rights groups under article 193.1 of the Criminal Code”, 23 June 2009 (http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/2073). See footnote 21 above, pp. 47, 56 and 92. Human Rights Center “Viasna”, “Authorities refuse to register association ‘Brest Christian Democrats’”, 21 August 2013 (http://spring96.org/en/news/65341). See also footnote 21 above, p. 155. Naviny.by Belarus News, “Justice Ministry denies registration to ‘Tell the Truth’ movement”, 16 June 2013 (http://naviny.by/rubrics/english/2013/06/17/ic_news_259_419143). See also footnote 21 above, p. 107. http://www.gaybelarus.by/. 17