Marina Tsapok
People have been kidnapped and are missing. The situation is getting worse, it is completely illegal and we are expecting even more violence, both before the referendum and after it.
Marina Tsapok is a member of the International Observation Mission of the Committee on International Control over the Situation with Human Rights in Belarus - a coalition of over 40 NGOs from across the OSCE region, and head of Kiev Information Centre of the same committee. She is also a coordinator of the FLARE (Freedom, Legality and Rights in Europe) network in Kiev, an activist with the independent Ukrainian youth organisation Foundation of Regional Initiatives, and a participant of the international Youth Human Rights Movement.
After the wave of violence that followed the presidential election of December 2010, the human rights situation in Belarus deteriorated rapidly and remains poor after the crackdown. Human rights defenders (HRDs) are subjected to intimidation and harassment, including judicial harassment, restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly, movement, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment.
