Belarusian Helsinki Committee
Encyclopedia
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) is a non-governmental
human rights
organization established in 1995 and the sole remaining independent human rights group in Belarus
. Its goal is protection of human rights
in Belarus following the Helsinki Accords
.
The government fined the organization $73,000 for allegedly unpaid taxes on money received via European Union
Tacis Programme grants (2003, overruled by the Supreme Court in 2004) and has brought criminal proceedings against officials of the organization.
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organization established in 1995 and the sole remaining independent human rights group in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. Its goal is protection of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
in Belarus following the Helsinki Accords
Helsinki Accords
thumb|300px|[[Erich Honecker]] and [[Helmut Schmidt]] in Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki 1975....
.
The government fined the organization $73,000 for allegedly unpaid taxes on money received via European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
Tacis Programme grants (2003, overruled by the Supreme Court in 2004) and has brought criminal proceedings against officials of the organization.