A/HRC/44/55 communities were registered in Belarus within 25 religious denominations. 54 Certain communities, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, continued to face rejections in registration, on dubious formal or technical grounds. Denial of registration implies that members of the said religious community have to organize meetings in private homes, which are deemed unauthorized and therefore illegal. 55 According to reports, one Minsk Pentecostal Church received its ninth rejection of registration in July 2019.56 58. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the amendments to the regulation of participation in religious activities, including meetings for worship, that came into force on 18 July 2019. The former article 193.1 of the Criminal Code, which punished the participation in unregistered religious activities, was abandoned. The newly introduced article 28.88 of the Code of Administrative Offences prohibits the illegal organization of an activity by an unregistered political party, foundation, civil or religious organization, and also prohibits participation in such an activity. The article allows law enforcement bodies to issue summary fines of up to $630 without court hearings. 57 The Special Rapporteur stresses that such a punitive approach interferes with the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief, which is not limited to registered religious groups and must be guaranteed to all without discrimination. C. Economic, social and cultural rights 1. Right to health People living with HIV 59. Within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030, Belarus supported the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: On the Fast Track to Accelerating the Fight against HIV and to Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030, and committed itself to work with the international community towards that goal. In order to act on that commitment, the Government developed a programme entitled “Health of the nation and demographic security for 2016–2020”, which was aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and indicators. The Special Rapporteur notes that Belarus made great strides in preventing the transmission of HIV from mothers to children, with no new cases in 2016. 58 According to available data, during the period January–September 2019, the number of new cases of HIV decreased by 9.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2018.59 However, Belarus still rates high in terms of the number of new incidents, and some categories of persons are particularly vulnerable owing to delayed diagnosis and lack of treatment. 60. While acknowledging progress in combating the spread of HIV, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that certain practices and policies lack a human rights-based approach. The prevalence of prejudice, stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV continues to discourage people from seeking a diagnosis or receiving health assistance, including from official health-care providers. In particular, the Special Rapporteur is concerned about the lack of informed consent and medical confidentiality, mandatory testing for HIV for certain groups, and policies that oblige health-care workers to report certain groups, such as sex workers and people who use drugs, to law enforcement authorities. Furthermore, criminal and administrative penalties for vulnerable groups, including sex workers and people who use drugs, discourage them from receiving the necessary medical assistance in case of HIV infection. 54 55 56 57 58 59 12 See www.belarus21.by/Articles/kolichestvo-religioznyh-obshhin-v-respublike-belarus-na-1yanvarya-2019-g (in Russian). “Belarus: religious freedom issues – statement by the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses”, pp. 4–5. Available at https://osce.org/ru/odihr/431009?download=true. See http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2507. Ibid. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, “WHO validates elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis in Armenia, Belarus and the Republic of Moldova”, press release, 7 June 2016. See www.belaids.net/epidsituaciya-po-vichspid-v-belarusi/ (in Russian).