Minsk Court Will Not Evicts a Protestant Group - Civil Society Digest ...

Marketplace of Youth Initiatives announces results in Brest. Fond of Ideas conducts a talk show on corporate social responsibility. Liberal Club presents alternative view on public administration reform. Office for the Rights of People with Disabilities presents national polling results. Euroradio accreditation in Belarus is renewed. Online security for dummies.

INTERACTION?BETWEEN STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY

New Life Church ordered to vacate its prayer house.?The Minsk City Economic Court?has ordered New Life Church to vacate its prayer house by December 5. The church council decided that they will stay in the prayer house 24 hours a day and ask God to bring the authorities back to their senses and show what to do and how to react to their actions. On December 4, the owner of the building (Minsk municipal authority) withdrew its claim and the eviction court proceedings were discontinued.?

The Ministry of Culture has replied to the complaint?of the public round table "Let us protect?Kurapaty" about the construction of "Bulbash-Hall" in?Kurapaty?tract. "It has been discovered that the construction was started in the protected zone. Moreover, the Ministry of Culture has ordered? "Belrestinvest" and Minsk Province Executive Committee to stop the construction in the protected zone of historical and cultural value", according to the letter signed?by deputy Minister of Culture?Victar?Kurash.

Investigative Committee will cooperate with?NGO. According to the signed Engagement Plan,?the Investigative Committee and the?NGO?"Understanding"?will closely cooperate in the field of prevention of illegal acts against minors and the investigation of indecent treatment of children.

Community issues in state newspaper.?Community based initiative of Minsk district Masyukovschina has ensured that the largest state newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussia of November 27, posted a publication devoted to one of the actual community issues - to reduce queues in clinics through their?informatization. The journalists using examples of the other clinics illustrate the pros and cons of adopting information technology in healthcare.

Thirty-three rights groups call for release of Byalyatski. The 33 member organisations of the Civic Solidarity Platform?have urged the?Belarusian?authorities to release human rights defender Ales?Byalyatski?and allow the?Vyasna?human rights group to continue its operations. The statement condemned?the recent confiscation of?Vyasna?s?office, an apartment in a residential building in Minsk that belonged to?Byalyatski?prior to his conviction.

Customs to burn "Belarus Press Photo 2011" albums. Such conclusion can be made after reading the official letter of?Ashmyany?customs?sent to?Belarusian?photographer?Alyaksandr?Vasyukovich, from whom they confiscated 41 copies of the photo album on November 12. The album was published officially and brought to Belarus a year ago.

Belarus renews accreditation for?Euroradio?bureau. The accreditation of?Euroradio's?bureau in Minsk is?valid through November 10, 2013. The correspondents bureau was opened in Belarus in November 2009. There are 10 accredited journalists, including?Euroradio's?Editor-in-Chief and Bureau Director Vital?Zyblyuk.

CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVITIES

Market place of youth initiatives in?Brest. The project for civil activists "Market place of youth initiatives" were summed up in?Brest. ?This year it was attended by 24 young people who have implemented 47 socially significant initiatives. The project is implemented by Foundation "Happy Childhood" together with the Regional Development Agency "Dzedzich".

Drug market reduced. Analysts of the civil initiative "Antimak" (Against Opium Poppy) fix that trade of smoking mixture in Belarus has been reducing. The initiative's coordinator,?Alexander Shpakovsky?notes that there is no official statistics yet, but the drug market has become quiet after the adoption of the Law "On narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors and analogs" in October 2012. The civil initiative ?Antimak? launched in 2008 is?struggling against drug-addiction?for the life and the future of Belarusians.

CSR talk show. On November 27, Fond of Ideas?conducted a talk show "Corporate Social Responsibility 2013: expectations and opportunities for business". The event was attended by representatives of business, governmental bodies, CSOs and media. The starting point of the discussion became?the recent?Fond of Ideas??market research?"Implementation of the principles of corporate social responsibility at the Belarusian enterprises".

Alternative view of the reform of the public administration. On November 27, in Minsk,?Liberal Club?together with governmental experts in public administration presented a joint brief paper with an alternative view of the future reform of the Belarusian public administration system. The document explains why Belarus needs the reform and what risks will accompany it.

Web portal?usebelarusy.by?launches voting for seven treasures of Belarus. "Treasures of Belarus" are to be determined in seven categories: names, events, nature, architecture, food, ceremonies, and songs. In each category, visitors can vote for the nominees from seven different epochs of Belarusian history. Launched on the eve of Christmas the popular vote offers all Belarusians not only to identify the brightest people and events, but also once again see the richness of the Belarusian history.

Website "Online Security for Dummies"?has been created?to help ordinary users, who are not programmers and system administrators to better understand the computer security.

Avangard flash mob. On November 25, in Minsk, the flash mob was held on the initiative of youth NGO "Avangard" headed by Marat Abramovski. Due to the cold weather the action was decided to conduct at the Minsk indoor shopping centre "New Europe". The event brought together about 100 participants?who started to dance at the scheduled time.

New survey of DisRight Office. On November 26,?Office for the Rights of People with Disabilities?presented the results of a poll to identify some aspects of the treatment to people with disabilities.?The survey was carried out by IISEPS?in the fall of 2012. In particular, the Office coordinator Sergei Drozdovskiy noted that during the last 2 years the negative trends remain: the society's attitude to education and employment of people with disabilities as well as governmental policy in the field of disability do not change.

Service to find work for people with disabilities launched in Belarus.?HeadHunter Belarus, RABOTA.TUT.BY project?launched a new service for marking jobs available to people with disabilities. It will help to quickly find qualified job for the vulnerable groups. By the way, organizers make a reference to a recent national survey conducted by IISEPS by request of Office for the Rights of People with Disabilities.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities. From November 15 to December 15, in Minsk, the NGO "BelAPDIiMI" conducts the action "Anti Indifference" to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The purpose of the action is to show that people with disabilities can and should participate fully in society, and society can become more open and compassionate, accepting such people.

Diaspora Congress in Tallinn. On November 23-25, Tallinn (Estonia) hosted?V Congress of the New Belarusian Diaspora in Europe and the U.S., which was attended by about 50 participants. The organisation "Third Way" established by a political refugee Pavel Morozov?hosted the event. At the Congress the participants discussed the strategy for 2013-2015, Internet-primaries as a method of choosing a coordinating council of opposition, as well as opportunities to work with the diaspora.

Belarus Digest prepared this overview on the basis of materials provided by Pact. This digest attempts to give a richer picture of the recent political and civil society events in Belarus. It often goes beyond the hot stories already available in English-language media.

Source: http://belarusdigest.com/story/minsk-court-evicts-protestant-group-civil-society-digest-12351

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