OSCE draft resolution: the 2014 Ice Hockey Championship to be relocated from Belarus

More than 60 parliamentarians from 21 countries have co-sponsored a resolution that recommends pulling the 2014 International Ice Hockey World Championships out of Belarus unless authorities release all political prisoners being held there. Parliamentarians from across 56 countries, including Belarus, will vote on the measure at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Annual Session 5-9 July in Monaco.

The resolution before the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly calls on Belarus to release and exonerate all political prisoners and respect the rule of law, media freedom and freedom of movement.

"In hockey you get five minutes for fighting, in Belarus you get five years for peaceful protest," said Tony Lloyd (United Kingdom). "As countries are toughening sanctions on Belarus, the last thing we should do is undercut those efforts by rewarding Minsk's repressive behavior with an international event and all the revenue that would come with it."

Lloyd led the 2010 OSCE election observation mission in Belarus when hundreds of demonstrators, including opposition activists and journalists, were arrested en masse, several of whom remain in prison today. Since 2010, new arrests and convictions have been made, including leading human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, who was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for tax evasion connected to his professional activities with the NGO Viasna.

The measure would also call for authorities in Minsk to:

• stop harassing and persecuting trade unions, journalists and human rights defenders,

• suspend the house arrest imposed on former political prisoners,

• allow an international investigation into allegations of torture in prisons,

• allow OSCE Parliamentary Assembly representatives to visit political prisoners, and

• reconsider applications of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party and the non-governmental organization Viasna, who have been denied registration without due cause.

The resolution welcomes the release of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and his associate Zmitser Bandarenka

 

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