The Conference of International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) of the Council of Europe, meeting in Strasbourg on 27 June 2012

1.      Calls on Belarusian authorities to cease politically motivated arrests and to release political prisoners including Ales Bialyatski, amongst many others

2.      Calls further on Belarusian authorities to cease preventing civil activists from cross-border travel (Litvina, Hulak, etc.)

3.      Reaffirms the need to enable civil society to carry on normal activities including conducting meetings, debates, congresses etc.(e.g. the last Congress of Assembly of NGOs)

4.      Repeats its calls to abrogate the Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus

5.      Urges the authorities not to impose any obstacles for civil society participation in electoral processes during the forthcoming Parliamentary election, including specifically  electoral observation; and to include representatives from a large spectrum of civil society organizations in electoral committees 

6.      Urges further the authorities to guarantee the full respect of the rights of independent observers, both national and international, during the forthcoming Parliamentary Elections

7.      Strongly condemns the recent suppression of grass-roots initiatives for expression and defence of their social and economic rights (Smolevichi, Baraulyany etc.)

8.      Repeats its calls to stop any pressure against the lawyers defending political and civil society activists (Bakhtsina, Lipkina, etc.)

9.      Demands further the cessation of persecution against the independent trade unions

10.  Demands further the cessation of persecution against the Independent analytical, research and academic institutions (IISEPS, BISS, Novak, EHU, etc.)

11.  Demands the elimination of obstacles to the activities of the independent media, and the cessation of politically motivated administrative and criminal prosecution of journalists, most recent being the prosecution of Andjey Paczobut

12.  Reaffirms the commitment of the Conference of INGOs to continue support of Belarusian civil society