A/HRC/26/44 25. Draft legislation on alternative civil service was introduced in Parliament on 6 February 2014, based on a request by the Constitutional Court from 2000.4 The draft has remained under “restricted use only”, with no public information on its content. 26. The Law on Population Register (2008) came into force in July 2013.5 It establishes 49 categories of primary and additional personal data stored in the register. The legislation only protects data registered by authorized agencies. Data registered by other entities is not safeguarded by guarantees. 27. Amendments to the law on information, information technologies and protection of information were adopted in January 2014.6 While containing legal provisions on personal data, they do not sufficiently and effectively protect it. Requests to hold public consultations involving all stakeholders and civil society met with little response.7 28. The law on fundamentals of crime prevention with a definition of domestic violence was adopted on 4 January 2014.8 Protective orders are to be issued against individuals convicted of domestic violence. IV. Engagement with the international human rights system 29. Over the years, various international human rights mechanisms – treaty bodies, special procedures and the Universal Periodic Review – have made recommendations to bring legislation, policies and practice into line with the commitments of Belarus under international human rights law. Implementation of these recommendations remains very limited. 30. On 29 November 2013, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requested Belarus to revise the system of short-term labour contracts, abolish forced labour of those with drug and alcohol addiction and ensure the free exercise of rights of trade unions, as well as to guarantee social protection mechanisms. 31. Belarus has continued to challenge on procedural grounds the registration of cases filed under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. To date, the Human Rights Committee has not been satisfied by the measures taken by the State party to give effect to its recommendations. 32. Belarus is midway to its second-cycle Universal Periodic Review, scheduled for 2015. It submitted a mid-term progress report in 2012. On 26 March 2014, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the United Nations country team held a workshop in Minsk on implementing the recommendations of the first Universal Periodic Review. 4 5 6 7 8 6 Decision No D-98/2000 of 26 May 2000 on some issues of realization of Article 57 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus (http://www.kc.gov.by/en/main.aspx?guid=5143). http://www.pravo.by/main.aspx?guid=3871&p0=H10800418. http://www.pravo.by/main.aspx?guid=3871&p0=h10800455&p2={NRPA}. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, “OSCE media freedom representative presents analysis of Belarusian information law and recommends improvements”, 10 September 2013 (http://www.osce.org/fom/104711). http://pravo.by/main.aspx?guid=3871&p0=H11400122&p1=1.