A/HRC/20/8 C. Methodology 11. Owing to lack of access to the country, the collection and verification of information for the present report was a challenging task. The report therefore relies to a significant extent on secondary sources, which OHCHR endeavoured to verify. 12. OHCHR collected information about facts and the sequence of events, and also included detailed accounts by witnesses. Factual information transmitted by the Government was studied in detail and is reflected in the report. Information was also sought from the United Nations human rights treaty bodies and special procedures, as well as regional organizations, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe. 13. Significant quantities of information were collected from public reports issued by Belarusian and international media, civil society groups and human rights defenders. While collecting information, particular attention was paid to the credibility of the source, its accuracy and possible verification of allegations. 14. The present report covers the period from 19 December 2010 to 23 March 2012. It is not intended to be a complete and exhaustive account of the human rights situation in Belarus, but aims at highlighting major trends and patterns of human rights violations, and makes recommendations on possible ways to improve the situation in the country. II. Context A. General background 15. Belarus gained independence in 1991. The Constitution was adopted in 1994 and amended in 1996 and 2004. Under the Constitution of 1994, the President could only serve for two five-year terms. In September 2004, however, President Aliaksandr Lukashenka,2 who had been in office since 1994, decreed that a referendum be held, which led to the repeal of the two-term limit. 16. For many years, concerns over the human rights situation in Belarus have been raised systematically in a number of international settings. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, established in 2004 by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 2004/14, was discontinued in 2007 further to the request of the Government. OSCE and the Council of Europe have denounced the systematic and widespread irregularities reported in the country‟s successive elections, including on 19 December 2010. Regrettably, the Government decided to discontinue the mandate of the OSCE Office in Minsk, which was closed on 31 March 2011. In February 2012, the Government also expelled the ambassadors of the European Union and of Poland in reaction to the sanctions introduced by the European Union against selected public officials and private individuals listed as responsible for the electoral irregularities during the election of 19 December 2010 and the continuing prosecution and harassment of civil 2 6 Article 17 of the Constitution declares Belarusian and Russian as the two official languages of Belarus; for this reason, Belarusian names may have two transliterated versions in English. Belarusian transliteration is used in the present report.