Justas Paleckis: Tonkacheva has sent me well-grounded materials

European Parliamentary responded to the comments prepared by the Legal Transformation Centre.

Belarus report discussion at a meeting of the European Parliament Committee for Foreign Affairs in Brussels on May 30 was emotional and fiery, the author of the report, European Parliament’s rapporteur on Belarus Justas Paleckis, told BelaPAN.

Let us recall that Justas Paleckis prepared the document for the European Commission, the Council of the EU and European Commission for External Relations and Foreign Affairs after his visit to Minsk on May 18-21. The report caused a mixed response in Belarus. Members of the opposition were indignant at the report’s conclusion about the improvements in the situation with human rights in Belarus in 2012. However, Paleckis claimed that he drew this conclusion basing on the information received from the Belarusan human rights fighters. During the online-conference at the “Radio Free Europe” on May 24 Paleckis admitted  that the statement ‘improvement of the human rights situation in Belarus’ was rather lame and would be revised.

The report may be amended within a week, reports Euroradio.  As Justas Paleckis reported, he planned a number of meetings with his colleagues from the European Parliament, where amendments to this document will be discussed.

European Parliament’s rapporteur also said that he has already received suggestions of the head of the Legal Transformation Centre “Lawtrend”, Elena Tonkacheva. “I had time to acquaint with these materials before the conference. Tonkacheva has sent me a well-grounded material that will be taken into account when amending the report”, - assured Paleckis.

As the EuroBelarus Information Service reported earlier, Belarusan human rights organization “Lawtrend” run by Elena Tonkacheva have her assessment of the report prepared by Justas Paleckis and made two key commentaries:

1. The wording of the report claiming that some positive changes in the situation with the human rights in Belarus are taking place, as such estimation cannot be confirmed by facts, as well as it contradicts the assessment provided by the national and international human rights organizations. We assess the situation in the human rights sphere as consistently negative;

2. The text should clearly suggest that any recommendations to drop restrictive measures stipulated by the former EU resolutions are possible only if all political prisoners are released.

At that Lawtrend reasoned the above given recommendations.

Next discussion of the report on Belarus at the conference of the European Parliament Committee for Foreign Affairs is preliminary planned for July 8. The report will be also discussed at a plenary session of the European Parliament in September.