Belarus Has Not Yet Responded To U.N. Charges

Forum 18 today reports that Belarus has not yet formally responded to a November 12 deadline set by the United Nations Human Rights Committee for confirming that the country has corrected a religious freedom violation against Hare Krishna followers. The U.N. body found that Belarus had violated Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The August 23 resolution (Communication 1207/2003) came in response to a formal complaint by two Krishna devotees, Sergei Malakhovsky and Aleksandr Pikul, that the government of Belarus had refused registration to their Krishna Consciousness Society at the building it used as a temple in Minsk.