GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Legislative amendments adopted in Belarus could severely undermine basic liberties and exacerbate a culture of fear, the United Nations said.
A panel of independent experts said new laws curtailing the right to peaceful protest could worsen the "current climate of fear and intimidation" in Belarus.
The laws adopted by the national assembly ban public assemblies without proper authority and bar non-governmental organizations from holding funds in foreign banks.
Frank La Rue, a U.N. special envoy on freedom of expression, said the legislation "will undermine the ability of all individuals to disseminate information and to express their legitimate grievances and concerns peacefully."
In September, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declared pardons for 11 opposition activists captured last year during post-election violence in Minsk. None of them were among Lukashenko's political rivals, however.
A former presidential candidate in Belarus, Andrei Sannikov, was reported missing this month from a penal colony without a trace.
Sannikov was one of the candidates in the 2010 presidential elections in Belarus. He received the second-highest vote total in the 2010 elections. Charter 97, a rights group he helped launch, claims he's been tortured while in custody.
