GENEVA - A group of UN experts* today called on Belarus to lift unnecessary restrictions on communication between women deprived of liberty on dubious extremism charges and their children.
"We have received reports about women deprived of liberty on the basis of extremism charges who are being denied direct communication with their children and only allowed to correspond every two-three months," the experts said.
Belarus is bound by international law to ensure that any individual deprived of liberty is treated with dignity and humanity, which includes meaningful access to their family. State authorities are required to protect families, ensure special care for motherhood and childhood, and allow children to maintain personal relations with their parents. Furthermore, the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules) require facilitating contact between women prisoners and their children, including through home leave and replacing imprisonment for mothers with dependent children with non-custodial sentences.
"We urge Belarus to immediately allow for regular, including in-person communication between mothers deprived of liberty and their children, taking into account the best interests of the child," the experts said. "We encourage the authorities to consider, as far as appropriate, granting women alternative non-custodial measures."
The experts also recalled that the Belarusian anti-extremism legal framework and law-enforcement practices are considered incompatible with international human rights law. They expressed regret that despite multiple calls for the Government of Belarus to bring its counter-terrorism and anti-extremism legal framework in line with international law, individuals continue to be detained under these laws. The experts recalled the opinions that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has adopted on this issue (Opinions 54/2024, 64/2023).
"There are serious reasons to believe that a number of women detained on extremism charges are being arbitrarily deprived of their liberty," they said. "The authorities should immediately address the lack of compliance and misuse, prompting independent reviews of the grounds for detention in these cases, and release."
Over the past months, the experts have raised concerns with Belarusian authorities about alleged ill-treatment of persons convicted on extremism and terrorist charges and about alleged widespread ill-treatment of women deprived of liberty against the background of a blatant lack of accountability for these human rights violations.
