Denied the Right to Peaceful Assembly in Gomel, Gays Take Matter to Court

MINSK, February 22, 2009  –  Gay activists in Gomel have filed a complaint in the courts following the refusal of the city authorities to permit a rally earlier this month.

It is thought that the case is the first in Belarus that addresses the constitutional right to freedom of assembly of the LGBT community.

The complaint to the Court of the Central Borough of Gomel was filed last week by Roman Mandrykin, one of the organisers of the proposed ‘The Right To Love’ gathering scheduled to be held on February 14 in the city’s Central Square.

An application to stage the event was made by Viachaslau Bortnik, Olga Dimitryuk and Roman Mandrykin on January 10.

As part of the application, the organisers agreed to be responsible for public order and safety, to ensure onsite access to medical services and to clean the area after the event.

After the submission of this request, Roman Mandrykin was pressured to remove his name from the application by the administration Gomel State University, where he is studying.  He refused.

It was planned to distribute educational materials about homophobia and discrimination.

In the text of his complaint to the court, Mr. Mandrykin claims that the decision of the Gomel City Administration violated his right to the freedom of assembly, as guaranteed by Article 35 of the Constitution of Belarus.

He maintains that the local regulation, Regulation 299, is itself unconstitutional in that it imposes unreasonable burdens on those seeking to organise public gatherings.

The organisers see this denial of permission as part of a pattern of infringement on the rights to assembly and they are concerned that homophobia may be a significant factor in the refusals.

A similar application was submitted to the authorities in Minsk and this permission was also denied.

The organisers intend to pursue this claim until it is resolved and hope to be able to organise a gathering next year.

“It was important for us to get an official decision of the authorities to understand the current attitude towards LGBT rights,” said Mr. Bortnik.

“Some are calling this time period ‘Belarusian Warming’ under the belief that the government is becoming more open to individual rights.  But these decisions don't support that belief.

“From the very beginning we did not have much hope to receive a positive answer but the decisions of the Gomel and Minsk city administrations proved that it is too early to talk about any kind of democratization in the country.”

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Russian, Belarusian Gay Activists Launch Brussels Campaign for Freedom of Assembly.  Gay activists from Russia and Belarus were pleased following a day of meetings in Brussels yesterday with European Union officials and a small group of European MPs.  (UK Gay News, February 12, 2009)