11 October 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A raid was reportedly carried out at the home of Maryia Kolesova-Hudzilina, lawyer and President of the Belarusian Association of Human Rights Lawyers.<\/strong><\/p>\n The search was allegedly carried out by KGB agents, who arrested the tenant of Ms Kolesova-Hudzilina\u2019s home. Through the tenant, the KBG allegedly tried to locate lawyers in the country who might have been able to help the lawyer.<\/p>\n The flat was ransacked and sealed by the authorities. It is now impossible for anyone to gain access to clean up the damage.<\/p>\n This incident is part of the growing persecution of lawyers in Belarus by Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s government.<\/p>\n Through this broad policy of repression of civil and political rights, many lawyers face the revocation of their licences, prosecution or arrest for defending political opponents or denouncing human rights violations.<\/p>\n The Belarusian authorities seek to control the judicial system and neutralise any opposition, thereby considerably reducing the rule of law.<\/p>\n The Observatory strongly condemns\u00a0<\/strong>the violent search of the home of the lawyer Maryia Kolesova-Hudzilina, which represents a serious infringement of her fundamental rights.<\/p>\n The Observatory urges\u00a0the Belarusian authorities\u00a0<\/strong>to fully respect procedural guarantees, including the right to a free and independent defence, as well as the inviolability of lawyers\u2018 workplaces.<\/p>\n The Observatory seeks\u00a0<\/strong>an immediate, impartial and transparent investigation into the circumstances of this search, in order to sanction any violation of rights and abuse of power. \u201cGovernments shall ensure that lawyers (a)\u00a0are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference<\/strong>; (..)\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Principle 16)<\/u><\/p>\n \u201cWhere the security of lawyers is threatened as a result of discharging their functions, they shall be\u00a0adequately safeguarded by the authorities<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Principle 17)<\/u><\/p>\n \u201cLawyers shall not be identified with their clients<\/strong>\u00a0or their clients\u2018 causes as a result of discharging their functions.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Principle 18)<\/u><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"listing_category":[52],"event_category":[],"service_category":[],"rental_category":[],"classifieds_category":[],"listing_feature":[],"region":[122,1770],"class_list":["post-20647","listing","type-listing","status-publish","hentry","listing_category-bedroht","region-europa-de","region-weissrussland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/20647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/listing"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/20647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20654,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/20647\/revisions\/20654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"listing_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_category?post=20647"},{"taxonomy":"event_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_category?post=20647"},{"taxonomy":"service_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service_category?post=20647"},{"taxonomy":"rental_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rental_category?post=20647"},{"taxonomy":"classifieds_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classifieds_category?post=20647"},{"taxonomy":"listing_feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_feature?post=20647"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=20647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nThe Observatory recalls\u00a0<\/strong>that, in accordance with the\u00a0United Nations basic principles on the role of the Bar<\/strong>, in particular\u00a0principles 16, 17 and 18 :<\/strong><\/p>\n