A/HRC/41/52 Rights (arts. 17 and 23 (1)) or the best interest of any child affected, upon ordering the deportation of an individual. 65 59. On a positive note, on 7 February 2019, the Homiel regional court overturned the expulsion order on Ukrainian national Serhii Protsenko, who had been arrested at the end of 2018 for being intoxicated in a public place. He had been living in Belarus for 10 years, has a family with three children and stable employment. 66 Before that, on 19 December 2018, the Maskoŭcki district court confirmed that Anna Krasulina, a Russian citizen and spokesperson for the United Civil Party, would not be deported from the country for one year on account of two administrative fines for participating in unauthorized mass events in 2016 and 2017 and one for an unpaid ride on public transport.67 The Special Rapporteur hopes this shows that the authorities have started to reconsider their approach to this issue. D. Economic, social and cultural rights 1. Non-discrimination 60. Although equality before the law and non-discrimination are enshrined in the Constitution and other legislative acts, Belarus does not possess comprehensive antidiscrimination legislation. The Human Rights Committee stressed this issue and the consequent lack of comprehensive protection in its most recent review (CCPR/C/BLR/CO/5, para. 15). Following the national human rights action plan for the period 2016–2019, the National Centre for Legislation and Legal Research has been tasked to evaluate the need for specific legislation prohibiting discrimination and is due to finalize its conclusions by the end of 2019. The Special Rapporteur believes that Belarus would benefit concretely from tackling the root causes of existing forms of discrimination and encourages the Government to increase its efforts. Current laws do not encourage plaintiffs to bring cases of discrimination to the courts, in practice placing the burden of proof on the plaintiff and making it almost impossible to prove an act of discrimination. The Special Rapporteur is not aware of any cases of complaints of discrimination which have been successful in court in 2018 or 2019. Persons with disabilities 61. The Special Rapporteur has been informed about the development of a new law on the rights of persons with disabilities. Civil society organizations have stressed positive developments, such as the introduction of job quotas for persons with disabilities, but also pointed out shortcomings, such as the lack of a clear definition of discrimination against persons with disabilities and the absence of specific remedies. 68 The draft law also fails to address the issue of deprivation of legal capacity of people with mental disabilities. 62. Currently, people with mental disabilities in psychiatric hospitals and care homes are declared “mentally incapacitated” and the director of the institution is appointed as their legal guardian.69 In some cases, that means that the director of an institution is the legal guardian for hundreds of people, which puts in question his capacity to guarantee the interests of every single patient. Furthermore, once a person is declared “mentally incapacitated” and placed in an institution, directors of those institutions become the trustees of the patients’ properties. 63. The Special Rapporteur believes that the current situation contravenes the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which foresees equal recognition before the law for persons with disabilities. The Convention requires that measures 65 66 67 68 69 14 See Zeyad Khalaf Hamadie Al-Gertani v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (CCPR/C/109/D/1955/2010). See https://belsat.eu/ru/in-focus/mne-nekuda-ehat-esli-menya-vyshlyut-ya-poedu-voevat-v-donbasssergej-protsenko-ostaetsya-v-belarusi/ (in Russian). https://naviny.by/article/20181218/1545147189-anna-krasulina-belarus-eto-moya-strana (in Russian). See www.disright.org/ru/news/kommentarii-o-proekte-zakona-o-pravah-invalidov-i-ih-socialnoyintegracii (in Russian). See www.disright.org/sites/default/files/source/14.07.2017/final-feasibility-report.pdf (in Russian).