The Ministry of Justice has filed a lawsuit to the Supreme Court to liquidate the public organization APB Bidlife Belarus. The organization announced this in its Telegram channel.
“In its informational materials, this public association publicly expresses the idea of supporting protest activity among the people, using the expression “Birds with the people.” On its pages in social networks the public association publishes photos with destructive tendencies and calls to actions that grossly violate public order,” reads the suit of the Ministry of Justice.
The APB disagrees with the agency’s accusations.
“This may be futile, but we will try with counsel to appear in court. Liquidation is death to the organization, but not to its members and supporters. I have devoted my life to the protection of wildlife and I will protect it in Belarus or abroad. It would be good if we could continue this work in Belarus together with you, our companions,” said the head of the organization Alyaksandr Vincheuski.
The APB Birdlife Belarus was founded in 1998. Since then, over 7,000 people became members and over 25,000 volunteers and supporters helped protect the environment, and more than 100 school clubs and 14 local branches of the APB worked throughout Belarus.
Since 2005, the APB has been a national partner of the global conservation association BirdLife International, has been a member of the Clean Baltic Coalition since 1999, and in 2021 was accepted into Wetlands International, a global non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of wetlands.
The APB Birdlife Belarus is one of a number of environmental organizations that have been liquidated by the Belarusian authorities over the past year.
In this regard, on October 21, 2021, in Geneva, the member countries of the Arhus Convention of the UN Economic Commission for Europe adopted a decision on Belarus, which recognized the liquidation of the environmental organization “Ecodom” on August 31 as a case of harassment and oppression of NGOs. It was also decided to suspend on February 1, 2022 for the country the rights and privileges under the Convention, if it does not take steps to resume the registration of “Ecodom” until December 1, 2021.
belsat.eu
