Individual V. State: Practice on Complaints with the United Nations Treaty Bodies with Regards to the Republic of Belarus
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Individual v. State: Practice on complaints with the United Nations treaty bodies with regards to the Republic of Belarus Volume I Collection of articles and documents The present collection of articles and documents is published within the framework of “International Law in Advocacy” program by Human Rights House Network with support from the Human Rights House in Vilnius and Civil Rights Defenders (Sweden) 2012 UDC 341.231.14 +342.7 (476) BBK 67.412.1 +67.400.7 (4Bel) I60 Edited by Sergei Golubok Candidate of Law, Attorney of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, member of the editorial board of the scientific journal “International justice” I60 “Individual v. State: Practice on complaints with the United Nations treaty bodies with regards to the Republic of Belarus”. – Vilnius, 2012. – 206 pages. ISBN 978-609-95300-1-7. The present collection of articles “Individual v. State: Practice on complaints with the United Nations treaty bodies with regards to the Republic of Belarus” is the first part of the two-volume book, that is the fourth publication in the series about international law and national legal system of the republic of Belarus, implemented by experts and alumni of the Human Rights Houses Network‘s program “International Law in Advocacy” since 2007. The first volume of this publication contains original writings about the contents and practical aspects of international human rights law concepts directly related to the Institute of individual communications, and about the role of an individual in the imple- mentation of international legal obligations of the state. The second volume, expected to be published in 2013, will include original analyti- cal works on the admissibility of individual considerations and the Republic of Belarus’ compliance with the decisions (views) by treaty bodies. It will include all decisions made by the Committee in 2000-2012 with regards to the Republic of Belarus that were not included in the first volume. UDC 341.231.14 +342.7 (476) BBK 67.412.1 +67.400.7 (4Bel) The Human Rights Houses Foundation represents the Human Rights Houses Network, and holds intellectual property rights to this collection as published within the project “Bring International Standards Home” ISBN 978-609-95300-1-7 © Group of authors, 2012 © Belarussian Human Rights House, 2012 CONTENTS Liudmila Ulyashyna Foreword .................................................................................................................... 7 Sergei Golubok Cases against Belarus at the Human Rights Committee: What’s next? .................... 11 Liudmila Ulyashyna Individual v. State: Submission, equality, conflict? Challenges and possibilities to Increase effective implementation of International legal human rights obligations........................................................ 15 Natalia Matskevich On certain legal issues considered by the Human Rights Committee with regards to Communications by individuals, who claimed their rights secured by the ICCPR were violated in administrative and criminal proceedings (through the example of cases against Republic of Belarus) ............... 40 Leonid Sudalenko Specifics in consideration of cases involving the exercise by citizens of the Republic of Belarus of their right to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly .......................................................................... 62 Roman Kisliak Individual communications as a method to promote positive changes in the area of human rights (Inga Abramova v. Republic of Belarus) ....................... 93 Annexes Annex 1. Statistical review of individual communications reported to the Human Rights Committee under the optional protocol to the International Covenant on civil and Political Rights ..................................... 102 Annex 2. List of cases with regards to the republic of Belarus considered by the Human Rights Committee ........................................ 106 Annex 3. Dynamics of cases on individual communications against Belarus registered at the UN bodies, by year ............................................. 108 4 • Individual v. State Annex 4. Number of cases against Belarus registered and heard at the Human Rights Committee, by year ............................................. 109 Annex 5. Dynamics of individual communications against Belarus heard on the merits by UN committees, by year .......................... 110 Annex 6. General Comment No. 31 [80] Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant ................................. 111 Annex 7. General comment No. 33, Obligations of States parties under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights .................................... 118 Annex 8. Decision of the Сonstitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the complaint of Andrei Anatolyevich Khoroshenko for violation of his constitutional rights under Article 403, paragraph 5, Article 413, paragraph 4, and Article 415, paragraphs 1 and 5, of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Russian Federation ..................................... 123 Annex 9. Views adopted by the Human Rights Committee on Communication No. 2120/2011 Vladislav Kovalev, Lyubov Kovaleva and Tatyana Kozyar v. Belarus ..................................................... 135 Annex 10. Views adopted by the Human Rights Committee on Communication No. 1784/2008 Vladimir Shumilin v. Belarus........................... 157 Annex 11. Views adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on Communication No. 23/2009 Inga Abramova v. Belarus ....................................................................................... 168 Dedicated to Boris Zvozskov FOREWORD Everyone shall have the right in accordance with the international instruments ratified by the Republic of Belarus to appeal to international organizations to defend their rights and liberties, provided all available domestic remedies have been exhausted. Article 61 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus On 15 March 1994 the 12th Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus ad- opted the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus that for the first time in the country’s history secured the right of an individual to file a complaint with international organizations against their own state. That period was marked by historical changes of international impor- tance: legal systems that used to be within or under the influence of the Soviet Union, were preparing to join regional and international human rights systems. Resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus of 10 Jan- uary 1992 ratified the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and recognized competence of the Human Rights Committee to receive and consider communications from individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation by that State Party of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. That time was marked by active cooperation with the Council of Europe. It began in 1989, when the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe established relations with the Supreme Council of the USSR, granting it the “special guest” status. In January 1992, the decision of the Bureau of As- sembly transferred that status to the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federa- tion; in 1992 and 1993, Ukraine and Belarus obtained “guest quotas” in the Council of Europe. Over the next five years, the “guests” were accepted as full members of the European regional system of human rights defense, but Be- larus never joined it: in 1997, the membership of Belarus as a guest member was suspended by a decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in connection with the changes in the legal system, that ran contrary to the underlying principles of the united European system. 8 • Individual v. State The door of the European Court was closed for the population under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Belarus. Although the Council of Europe Infor- mationPoint opened in Minsk in June 2009, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on the PACE Bureau to restore the special guest status to Belarus, this process is hindered by a number of political and legal complexities. Meanwhile, despite the fact that the legal system of the Republic of Be- larus is immune to the direct control of the European Court of Human Rights; the country’s population has the possibility to realize their hope for interna- tional legal review of the observance of their individual rights. The system for the protection of human rights within the United Nations Charter and Treaty bodies is open to those who is subject to the jurisdiction of the Republic of Belarus and complains about the non-fulfilment of obliga- tions under the universal treaties. In 2000, the Human Rights Committee considered the first communica- tion from Belarus1, and since 2008, there has been exponential growth in the number of registered communication (see Annexes 3, 4 and 5).2 Analysis of statistical data on the registered individual communications to the UN Human Rights Committee with regards to Belarus shows that while in the course of ten years (1997-2006) the Committee had registered for con- sideration 38 communications, during the last six years (2007-2012) there were several times as many and a total of 145 as of early 2013 (see Annex 1). It is important to take note of the high “quality” of these communica- tions: according to 2012 data by OHCHR, of