Activity Belarus Minsk
International Adoption Belarus
Fax: 375 – 17-231-0617 ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR ADOPTIVE PARENTS: A prospective parent may be single, divorced or widowed. A prospective parent must be at least 16 years older than the adoptive child. Single parents are permitted to adopt a child of either sex. RESIDENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: There are no residency requirements for Belarusian adoptions. [Read More]
Belarus
Foreign missionaries were not permitted to engage in religious activities outside of the institutions that invited them. The law requires 1-year, multiple-entry "spiritual activities" visas for foreign missionaries. According to the CRNA in 2002, all visa requests from registered religious organizations were approved. CRNA statistics showed that in 2002, over 1,250 foreigners went to the country to work with domestic religious groups. The CRNA reported that 956 foreigners came to the country during the year to engage in religious activity, education, and humanitarian assistance activity with registered religious groups; however, religious groups, even those with a long history in the country, continued to experience difficulties in obtaining visas. Members of the Hare Krishna and Protestant communities reported that they were unable to invite foreign clergy to participate in religious activity. ... [Read More]
2004 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Belarus
On June 9, a district court in Minsk sentenced Oksana Novikova, a prominent anti Lukashenko protester, to 2 years and 6 months under house arrest for slandering the President. Prosecutors accused Novikova of passing out leaflets at the main railway station in Minsk which contained slanderous information and that accused the President of serious crimes. These leaflets, which Novikova herself typed and copied, included a picture of Lukashenko and specifically accused him of causing the disappearance of various citizens, causing natural gas to be shut off in February, smuggling, cheating the Government out of customs revenue by exempting his companies from paying customs fees, and retaining power illegally. ... [Read More]
Office of Academic Exchange Programs: European Programs Branch – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs – U.S. Department of State
- Activity: Sports Day for Children, June 1st (Bishkek) ... - Activity: Celebrate Children's Protection Day (June 1) at the orphanage, June (throughout the month), (regions) ... - Activity: Park Clean-Up, May TBD (Bishkek) ... [Read More]
Belarus
Lengthy pretrial detention periods were common. At year's end, for example, the following persons remained in detention: Mikhail Leonov, director general of the MTZ tractor factory had been in pretrial detention since his arrest in early January on corruption charges; artist Ales Pushkin had been in detention since he was arrested in Minsk in July for attempting to stage a performance on Republic Day, the date authorities mark the liberation of Minsk from German Nazi occupation; entrepreneur Oksana Novikova remained in detention after having been arrested on October 17 for passing out anti-Lukashenko leaflets in Minsk's Oktyabrskaya Square; and 61-year-old industrialist and recent presidential candidate Leonid Kalugin had been in pretrial detention since November 2001, when he was charged with abuse of power, illegal currency practices, and illegal business activity ... [Read More]
US Department Of State Post Report
Minsk has two airports. Minsk I is within the city limits and primarily serves smaller domestic flights. Minsk II is an easy 40-minute drive outside the city and serves international flights. The airlines that service Minsk are: Lufthansa, Austrian Air, LOT, Estonian Air, El Al, and Belavia. The major connecting cities into and out of Minsk are Frankfurt, Vienna, Warsaw, and Moscow. Communications Telephones and TelecommunicationsLast Updated: 11/28/2003 10:13 AM ... [Read More]
V. Country Narratives -- Countries A through G
Guyana is a country of origin, transit, and destination for young women and children trafficked primarily for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Much of the trafficking takes place in remote areas of the countrys interior, or involves Amerindian girls from the interior trafficked to coastal areas to engage in prostitution and involuntary domestic servitude. Girls promised employment as domestics, waitresses, and bar attendants are trafficked into prostitution; young Amerindian men are exploited under forced labor conditions in timber camps. Guyanese girls and young women are trafficked for sexual exploitation to Suriname and other countries in the region such as Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, and Venezuela. Most foreign victims come from bordering regions of Brazil, and may be trafficked through Guyana to Suriname. The Government of Guyana does not fully comply with t ... [Read More]
Office of Academic Exchange Programs: European Programs Branch – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs – U.S. Department of State
- Earth Day: Clean Up Activity, Hrazdan River Gorge, April 16th (Yerevan) ... - International Women's Day: Roundtable, "Woman in the Work Place/Gender Aspects," March 24th (Minsk) ... - Earth Day: Clean-up Activity, April 23rd (Chuli, outside of Ashgabat) ... [Read More]
Austria, United States Jointly Investigate Child Pornography - US Department of State
Having dismantled the leadership of a child pornography Web site and money-laundering enterprise based in Minsk, Belarus, ICE agents in the United States and in 52 attaché offices worldwide focused on persons who purchased subscriptions to child pornography from Web sites affiliated with the Belarus operation. ... The enforcement action by the BKA grew out of an ongoing ICE investigation of an Internet billing company in Minsk, Belarus. In January 2004, the company was charged with money laundering as well as providing credit card billing services for 50 child pornography websites worldwide and operating child porn websites on its own. Three officers of the company were arrested in Europe and have been extradited to the United States. Two of those officers have pleaded guilty in Newark, N.J., as have four officers of two affiliated companies in Florida and California. ... [Read More]
"For the Record" Alumni Newsletter – Office of Academic Exchange Programs, European Programs Branch
Denys Pervov, who is currently studying American Studies at Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel, IL, uses his talents as a soccer player to give back to the local community by volunteering to referee and coach children's soccer for the local YMCA every Saturday. About his study in the U.S., Denys believes, "It will be a great honor for me to represent my native country...I'm sure that our countries and our peoples have much in common... I am passionately devoted to football, or soccer, as it is called in America. I've been involved in this kind of activity for about ten years, in the course of which thanks to my perseverance, straightforwardness and stubbornness, I've achieved much success..." ... [Read More]
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