350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 10118-3299 Tel: +1-212-290-4700 Mr. Jens MODVIG Fax: +1-212-736-1300; 917-591-3452 Chairperson Europe and Central Asia Mr. Patrice GILLIBERT Division Hugh Williamson, Director Head of the Secretariat Rachel Denber, Deputy Director Judith Sunderland, Deputy Director (Acting) Philippe Dam, Advocacy Director UN Committee Against Torture Tanya Lokshina, Associate Director Inna Khodzhaeva, Moscow Office Director OHCHR – Palais Wilson Giorgi Gogia, Associate Director Emma Sinclair-Webb, Senior Researcher 52 rue des Pâquis Damelya Aitkhozhina, Researcher Lydia Gall, Senior Researcher CH‐1201 Geneva, Switzerland Yulia Gorbunova, Senior Researcher Mihra Rittmann, Senior Researcher Eva Cosse, Researcher Brussels, 18 November 2020 Kartik Raj, Researcher Vladislav Lobanov, Senior Research Assistant Anahit Chilingaryan, Research Assistant Oksana Antipova-Kheinonen, Associate RE: Follow‐up to the review of the situation in Belarus Viktoriya Kim, Assistant Researcher Catherine Pilishvili, Senior Associate Marlene Auer, Associate Aichurek Kurmanbekova, Associate Dear Chairperson, Marlene Auer, Associate Laura Mills, Researcher Anastasiia Zlobina, Coordinator Since the last review of Belarus by the Committee Against Torture, the authorities in Belarus Fatima Burhan Mohamed, Research Assistant have engaged in a new, widespread pattern of abuse. This took place in the aftermath of A DVISORY Committee the August 9, 2020 presidential election. We would like to submit, as follow‐up to the Catherine Zennström, Chair Jean Paul Marthoz, Vice-chair concluding observations of the Committee against Torture (CAT/C/BLR/CO/5) adopted at Isabelle de Wismes Tana de Zulueta the 63rd session, two publications that provide an updated overview of situation in Belarus. Jonathan Fanton Colette Shulman We hope these reports are helpful in assessing the government’s implementation of the William von Mueffling recommendations contained in Paragraphs 8, 16 and 47 of the Concluding Observations. Alexander Cooley Stephen del Rosso Felice Gaer Miklós Haraszti The first of these publications is Human Rights Watch’s September 15, 2020, report, Alice H. Henkin Jeri Laber “Belarus: Systematic Beatings, Torture of Protestors – OSCE, UN Human Rights Council Masha Lipman Helena Luczywo Inquiries Needed.” The report is based on Human Rights Watch’s first‐hand interviews in Jane Olson Arjan Overwater Belarus and documents systematic beating, torture and other ill‐treatment of protesters by Kimberly Marteau Emerson the Belarussian authorities, in the days following the August 9, 2020 presidential election. Glenda Nühn-Morris Lucy Pereira Leon Sigal Malcolm Smith The second is the report of the OSCE rapporteur appointed by 17 OSCE participating States Joanna Weschler under the Moscow Mechanism. This report’s section entitled “Prohibition of Torture and Human Rights Watch Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” provides authoritative Kenneth Roth, Executive Director information and recommendations of interest to this Committee. Michele Alexander, Deputy Executive Director, Development and Global Initiatives Emma Daly, Deputy Executive Director, Media (Acting) Barbara Pirto, Deputy Executive Director, Operations The Committee’s follow‐up procedure can be a crucial opportunity to highlight broader (Acting) Joseph Saunders, Deputy Executive Director, Program concerns over the ongoing crackdown against political opposition and civil society in (Acting) Bruno Stagno Ugarte, Deputy Executive Director, Belarus. We hope that you will find it an important contribution. Advocacy Colin Mincy, Chief People Officer We remain available for any additional question in this regard. Dinah PoKempner, General Counsel James Ross, Legal & Policy Director Sincerely, Amy Rao, Co-Chair Neil Rimer, Co-Chair Philippe Dam Advocacy Director Europe and Central Asia Division Human Rights Watch AMSTERDAM · BEIRUT · BERLIN · BRUSSELS · CHICAGO · GENEVA - GOMA · JOHANNESBURG · KIEV · KINSHASA · LONDON · LOS ANGELES · MOSCOW · NAIROBI NEW YORK · PARIS · SAN FRANCISCO · SÃO PAULO · SEOUL · SILICON VALLEY · STOCKHOLM · SYDNEY · TOKYO · TORONTO · WASHINGTON · ZÜRICH www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/15/belarus-systematic-beatings-torture-protesters For Immediate Release ***To download video: https://media.hrw.org/preview/2563/belarus-systematic-beatings-torture-of-protesters/eng Belarus: Systematic Beatings, Torture of Protesters OSCE, UN Human Rights Council Inquiries Needed (Berlin, September 15, 2020) – Belarusian security forces arbitrarily detained thousands of people and systematically subjected hundreds to torture and other ill- treatment in the days following the August 9, 2020 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today. The victims described beatings, prolonged stress positions, electric shocks, and in at least one case, rape, and said they saw other detainees suffer the same or worse abuse. They had serious injuries, including broken bones, cracked teeth, skin wounds, electrical burns, and mild traumatic brain injuries. Some had kidney damage. Six of the people interviewed were hospitalized, for one to five days. Police held detainees in custody for several days, often incommunicado, in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. “The sweeping brutality of the crackdown shows the lengths to which the Belarusian authorities will go to silence people, but tens of thousands of peaceful protesters continue to demand fair elections and justice for abuses,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should urgently set in motion inquiries to ensure that evidence is collected that could contribute to accountability for grave human rights violations.” The UN Human Rights Council, which will hold an urgent debate on Belarus during the session that will run from September 14 to October 6, and the OSCE should promptly open inquiries. Human Rights Watch interviewed 27 former detainees, 21 men and 6 women, nearly all of whom said they were arrested between August 8 and 12. Some were arrested as they took part in demonstrations that they described as peaceful; others were grabbed off the streets or from their cars. Many shared medical documents and photographs of injuries. At least five still had bruises and/or wore casts at the time of the interview. Human Rights Watch also spoke with 14 people with knowledge of the arrests and abuse, most between August 20 and 29, in Minsk, Hrodna, and Homiel, including witnesses to arrests, healthcare workers, and detainees’ relatives. Human Rights Watch also examined 67 video recordings and written accounts by former detainees and their relatives, either from public sources or shared directly with researchers. On the basis of Human Rights Watch’s findings, much of the physical abuse by riot police and other law enforcement agents constitutes torture, as do the detention conditions that interviewees described. From August 9 to 13, police arrested nearly 7,000 people amid an unprecedented wave of popular and largely peaceful protests. They alleged widespread election irregularities that led to the contested re-election of the incumbent, Aleksander Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994. With protests in their sixth week, Belarusian authorities have expelled, harassed, or stripped of accreditation dozens of foreign journalists and local journalists working for foreign and local independent outlets. Starting the first week of September, they have begun to again arrest protesters in large numbers, with the Interior Ministry reporting more than 600 detained on September 6 alone, and more than 300 in custody. Detainees said that police, riot police (known as OMON, or Special Task Police Force), and special designation forces (Spetznaz) picked them up off the streets, in some cases using extreme violence, then beat them in dangerously confined spaces in vehicles where they had trouble breathing. The security forces transported the detainees to police precincts and other detention facilities where they kicked, punched, and beat them with truncheons, forced them to stand, kneel, or lie in stress positions for hours, then held them for days in overcrowded cells. Police often denied detainees food and water and denied their requests to go to the toilet. All said they saw dozens of others subjected to similar or worse treatment. In Hrodna, a 29-year-old journalist said that when he was arrested, despite displaying his press credentials, an OMON officer broke both his wrists. A medic described witnessing an incident in Minsk on August 11, in which an OMON officer trying to arrest a motorist who had stopped his car shot a rubber bullet point-blank at him. The medic said she treated the victim on the side of the road, but he ended up needing surgery to extract the bullet from his lungs. The aim of the abuse, former detainees said, appeared to be to punish and humiliate. Most reported that OMON and other security forces singled out detainees with so-called “atypical” looks, such as men with long or dyed hair, and people with dreadlocks, piercings, or tattoos, for worse treatment and more insults. Detainees said that police and guards confiscated detainees’ medications, frequently ignored calls for medical care, and in some cases denied it altogether. In one case, a detainee with a pre- existing medical condition was ill-treated and denied timely medical attention. He fell into a coma in custody and was clinically