A/HRC/41/52 party.48 The near impossibility for public associations wishing to register a private address as their legal address further restricts freedom of association. 44. As formerly reported, members of independent trade unions continue to be regularly put under pressure. On 13 March 2019, around 400 factory workers employed by the Bielaruskalij company in Salihorsk were pressured to quit the trade union chapter. The employer is reported to have said openly that no promotion or career development would be possible for members of independent trade unions.49 45. On 24 August 2018, independent trade union leaders Hienadz Fyadynič and Ihar Komlik were both sentenced to four years of restriction of liberty on parole for tax evasion. The court also barred them from holding managerial positions for five years. 50 The tax evasion charge was brought against them for having received funding in a foreign bank account in the period 2011–2012 and bringing it back to Belarus without declaring it. The criminal case was initiated after their mobilization against presidential decree No. 3 in the spring of 2017 and is seen by many as retribution for their activism. 51 It is not the first time that activists have been sentenced for tax evasion, the most famous case being that of Alies Bialiacki. At the time of his detention from August 2011 to June 2014, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed the view that article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights not only required States not to interfere with the creation of associations but also to ensure a conducive legal framework for their existence and activities (A/HRC/WGAD/2012/39, para. 48). The Special Rapporteur believes that the restrictive legal framework preventing organizations from registering and forbidding them from receiving funding from abroad clearly goes against the country’s obligations. 3. Freedom of peaceful assembly 46. In comparison to previous years, the events organized on the occasion of Freedom Day on 25 March 2019 were marked by fewer cases of arrests than previously, although at least 15 people were detained in Minsk, including opposition members, human rights activists and artists. 52 Certain individuals were pre-emptively arrested before joining the march and others for spontaneous peaceful actions. Most of them were released without charge. The relatively low number of arrests at this symbolic event is a welcome development, although the general trend in regard to freedom of peaceful assembly throughout the reporting period remains negative. 47. The amendment to the law on mass events, originally introduced in July 2018, entered into force on 26 January 2019. It introduced a notification procedure for assemblies that take place in areas designated for that purpose by the authorities. The designated places are, however, reported to be located far from city centres. Moreover, gatherings organized in other places still require specific authorization, which in practice is rarely granted, often on grounds that another organization has already applied to hold an event in the same location. Since weekly protests against the construction of a battery plant began in February 2018 in Brest, authorization to hold protests has been sought by the organizers 89 times but has been consistently refused, except once on 29 April 2018. 48. Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences continues to be widely used and human rights defenders, activists and simple protesters are repeatedly fined for “breaching the order of organizing or conducting mass events”. In the reporting period, article 23.34 was used in 141 cases against 98 individuals. It is even applied to one-person pickets or other forms of individual protest, including artistic performances. On 16 July 2018, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex activist Viktorija Biran was fined for posing for a picture while holding a poster with the words “You are fake” in front of three different governmental buildings. Her action was planned in protest at a statement put out 48 49 50 51 52 See http://spring96.org/ru/news/89889 (in Russian). See https://belaruspartisan.by/politic/457312/ (in Russian). See www.rferl.org/a/belarusian-union-leaders-fyadynich-komlik-sentenced-four-years-of-restrictedfreedom-/29451501.html. See https://spring96.org/en/news/90746. See http://spring96.org/en/news/92438. 11