A/HRC/44/55 participating in an unauthorized assembly alleged that when a cellmate managed to obtain hygiene products, she was sanctioned for having shared some of them with other inmates. 35. The treatment of non-violent drug offences committed by minors remains a major concern. Since 2014, children have been sentenced to prison terms for non-violent and minor drug-related offences – including with regard to first offences. They are being imprisoned in degrading conditions for such offences, despite the fact that, according to legislation, children in Belarus are eligible for alternatives to detention. The Special Rapporteur deplores the fact that article 328 of the Criminal Code – which pertains to trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors and analogues – is applied to individuals who were children at the time of the offence, without taking into consideration their specific needs as children. Underage convicts serving a sentence for drug-related offences (referred to as “Children-328”) reportedly experience several rights violations, including denial of medical care and, in one case, psychological trauma from the discovery of the body of an inmate who had committed suicide. One inmate also reported harassment and threats of solitary confinement if his mother did not stop submitting complaints about the conditions of detention. 26 The Special Rapporteur urges the Government of Belarus to amend its approach to underage drug offenders and to adopt a rights-based approach, compliant with the international obligations enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Belarus is a party. 27 36. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the amendment by Belarus to article 328, by which the minimum sentence was decreased from five to three years for the illegal circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, and their precursors and analogues, and from eight to six years for the same offence, when committed by a group of persons, State officials or persons with prior convictions for drug-related offences.28 She encourages the Government of Belarus to extend this mitigation of sentence or grant amnesty to all the children falling in the “Children-328” category who have been sentenced to disproportionately long prison terms (from 8 to 12 years) pursuant of parts 3 and 4 of article 328. 37. To date, the issue of domestic violence has not been adequately regulated by law in Belarus. The Special Rapporteur hopes that the Government of Belarus will progress with developing legislation on the criminalization of domestic violence by introducing a new provision into its Criminal Code. According to available statistics, around 120,000 calls are received annually regarding family and household conflicts. 29 In the majority of cases, perpetrators are held to administrative liability and victims, who in their overwhelming majority are children and women, are left without any adequate means of protection. 30 3. Arbitrary arrest and detention and enforced disappearances 38. Throughout the reporting period demonstrators who participated in peaceful gatherings and protests were frequently subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention, in violation of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion, as contained in articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 31 39. Arbitrary arrests of environmental activists protesting against the construction of the battery plant in Brest continued during the reporting period. In April 2019, a total of 18 environmental activists were arrested. 32 Some of them were released a few hours later, while others were detained for up to three days in temporary detention facilities and consequently fined. These activists were arrested under article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences of Belarus, which regulates the organizing and holding of mass 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 See https://nash-dom.info/58409 (in Russian). Communication AL BLR 6/2019, 28 October 2019, available at spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=24893. See http://pravo.by/novosti/novosti-pravo-by/2019/june/36281/ (in Russian). See https://belarus.unfpa.org/en/news/dialogue-problematic-domestic-violence-has-been-revivedbelarus. See http://npbelarus.info/d0-bc-d0-b0-d1-80-d0-b8-d0-bd-d0-b0-d0-ba-d0-be-d1-80-d0-b6/ (in Russian). Articles 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. See https://spring96.org/en/news/92722. 7