Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Human rights defenders under pressure

EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA: Humanrights defenders under pressure

6-minutesdocumentary film on obstacles to freedoms of assembly and association,hindrances to NGO registration, criminalisation of unregistered organisations,obstacles of access to funding, judicial harassment and arbitrary detentions

Paris-Geneva,November 7, 2011. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders,a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) andthe World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), is releasing today a six-minutedocumentary drawing a dark picture of the situation of human rights defendersin the Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in a context where the latter areconfronted to increasing repression.

Thisfilm is made up of a series of analytical interviews of human rights defendersfrom Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, the RussianFederation, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, taken on the margins ofthe Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Human DimensionImplementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw, from September 26 to 29, 2011.

Themost recent example of repression of civil society activists in the region isthe case of Mr. Ales Bialatski, FIDH Vice-President and ViasnaPresident, currently arbitrarily detained in relation with his human rightsactivities, and whose trial is presently taking place in Minsk.

Inmany States of the OSCE region, human rights defenders are facing similar harshrepression: obstacles to freedoms of assembly and association, hindrances toNGO registration, criminalisation of unregistered organisations, obstacles ofaccess to funding, judicial harassment and arbitrary detentions.

Intervieweesoutline the restrictive environment in which they operate, and the main trendsof repression they are confronted to.

Thedocumentary is available in :

RUSSIAN

ENGLISH

SPANISH

FRENCH

Contacts:

FIDH : Karine Appy / Arthur Manet: +33 1 43 55 25 18

· OMCT :Delphine Reculeau: + 41 22 809 49 39