Charter 97
Encyclopedia
Charter 97 is a declaration calling for democracy in Belarus
and a human rights
group taking its inspiration from the declaration.
The document - whose title deliberately echoes the Czechoslovak human rights declaration Charter 77
twenty years earlier - was created on the anniversary of a referendum held in 1996, and which, in the words of the organisation of the same name, declares:
Charter 97, as a citizens' human rights organisation based around the principles outlined in this document, is a non-partisan organisation which has organised protest rallies and has provided a springboard for other democratic movements in the country. It also maintains a website of news with a focus on human rights developments.
On September 3, 2010, the body of the founder of Charter 97, Oleg Bebenin, was found in his house near Minsk
. According to initial statements by the Belarusian government, Bebenin committed suicide by hanging himself. However, friends of Bebenin have rejected this, stating that there was no indication Bebenin was planning to commit suicide, and that there were no messages or notes left behind.
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 ,...
and a 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...
group taking its inspiration from the declaration.
The document - whose title deliberately echoes the Czechoslovak human rights declaration Charter 77
Charter 77
Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in communist Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, and Pavel Kohout. Spreading the text of the document was...
twenty years earlier - was created on the anniversary of a referendum held in 1996, and which, in the words of the organisation of the same name, declares:
"devotion to the principles of independence, freedom and democracy, respect to the human rights, solidarity with everybody, who stands for elimination of dictatorial regime and restoration of democracy in Belarus."
Charter 97, as a citizens' human rights organisation based around the principles outlined in this document, is a non-partisan organisation which has organised protest rallies and has provided a springboard for other democratic movements in the country. It also maintains a website of news with a focus on human rights developments.
On September 3, 2010, the body of the founder of Charter 97, Oleg Bebenin, was found in his house near Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
. According to initial statements by the Belarusian government, Bebenin committed suicide by hanging himself. However, friends of Bebenin have rejected this, stating that there was no indication Bebenin was planning to commit suicide, and that there were no messages or notes left behind.