Viasna activist Marfa Rabkova is political prisoner

Min­sk – Sep­tem­ber 21, 2020

On Sep­tem­ber 17, offi­cers of GUBAZIK (Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Main Direc­torate for Com­bat­ing Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion) detained Mar­fa Rabko­va, coor­di­na­tor of the Vol­un­teer Ser­vice of the Human Rights Cen­ter “Vias­na”. Her hus­band Vadz­im Zharom­s­ki was also detained, but even­tu­al­ly released.

The couple’s apart­ment was searched and equip­ment, per­son­al mon­ey and belong­ings were con­fis­cat­ed.

Dur­ing arrest, Rabko­va was told that she was being detained as part of a crim­i­nal case under Part 3 of Art. 293 of the Crim­i­nal Code (train­ing or oth­er prepa­ra­tion of per­sons to par­tic­i­pate in riots, or fund­ing such activ­i­ties). Mar­fa was then placed in a deten­tion cen­ter. On Sep­tem­ber 19, she was trans­ferred to pre-tri­al prison No. 1 in Min­sk.

Mar­fa Rabko­va is a mem­ber of the Human Rights Cen­ter «Vias­na» and coor­di­na­tor of the organization’s vol­un­teer ser­vice. As part of her human rights activ­i­ties, Mar­fa, togeth­er with Viasna’s vol­un­teers, observed peace­ful assem­blies, took an active part in the inde­pen­dent obser­va­tion cam­paign “Human Rights Defend­ers for Free Elec­tions”, and par­tic­i­pat­ed in doc­u­ment­ing evi­dence of tor­ture and oth­er ill-treat­ment of detained pro­test­ers.

It should be not­ed that through­out the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cam­paign and after the elec­tion, mem­bers of the Human Rights Cen­ter “Vias­na” faced pres­sure and harass­ment from the author­i­ties, includ­ing attempt­ed crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion, admin­is­tra­tive arrest and deten­tions. On Elec­tion Day, August 9, sev­en mem­bers of the region­al offices of the Human Rights Cen­ter «Vias­na» were arbi­trar­i­ly detained in con­nec­tion with their human rights activ­i­ties.

It should be remind­ed that such activ­i­ties are guar­an­teed to human rights defend­ers by the Con­sti­tu­tions of the Repub­lic of Belarus, inter­na­tion­al human rights norms, includ­ing the Dec­la­ra­tion on the Rights and Duties of Indi­vid­ual Groups, Indi­vid­u­als and Pub­lic Bod­ies to Pro­mote and Pro­tect Uni­ver­sal­ly Rec­og­nized Human Rights and Fun­da­men­tal Free­doms, which was approved by the UN Gen­er­al Assem­bly on Decem­ber 9, 1998.

Accord­ing to Art. 12 of this Dec­la­ra­tion, every­one has the right, indi­vid­u­al­ly and in asso­ci­a­tion with oth­ers, to par­tic­i­pate in peace­ful activ­i­ties against vio­la­tions of human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms.

The state must take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to ensure the pro­tec­tion, through the com­pe­tent author­i­ties, of any per­son act­ing indi­vid­u­al­ly and in asso­ci­a­tion with oth­ers, from any vio­lence, threats, ret­ri­bu­tion, neg­a­tive dis­crim­i­na­tion, de fac­to or de jure, pres­sure or any oth­er arbi­trary actions in con­nec­tion with the law­ful exer­cise of his or her rights under this Dec­la­ra­tion.

In this regard, we, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty, believe that the impris­on­ment of Mar­fa Rabko­va is the result of her non-vio­lent activ­i­ties aimed at pro­tect­ing human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms.

Based on this, guid­ed by para­graph 3.1 b) of the Guide­lines on the Def­i­n­i­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers, adopt­ed at the 3rd Belaru­sian Human Rights Forum, we, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Belaru­sian human rights orga­ni­za­tions, con­sid­er human rights activist Mar­fa Rabko­va to be a polit­i­cal pris­on­er and call on the author­i­ties to:

• imme­di­ate­ly release Viasna’s human rights activist Mar­fa Rabko­va and stop the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion against her;

• stop all attempts of pres­sure and per­se­cu­tion against mem­bers of the Human Rights Cen­ter “Vias­na” and all Belaru­sian human rights activists;

• strict­ly ful­fill their inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions to ensure guar­an­tees of human rights activ­i­ties in the coun­try.

Human Rights Cen­ter «Vias­na»

Advi­so­ry cen­ter on con­tem­po­rary inter­na­tion­al prac­tices and their legal imple­men­ta­tion “Human Con­stan­ta”

FORB Ini­tia­tive

Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee

Cen­ter for Legal Trans­for­ma­tion “Lawtrend”

Office for the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties

Legal Ini­tia­tive

Barys Zvozskau Belaru­sian Human Rights House

PEN Belarus

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Belaru­sian Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter