At the beginning of this year, Board of Belarusian PEN Centre expelled Pavel Sevyarynets from the organization because he hasn’t paid dues for several years. He refused to pay dues accusing the organization of gay propaganda. Before the general meeting, Pavel paid the debt and the general meeting renewed Paul in the organization. But before the general meeting, Pavel wrote an article in which he accused PEN leadership of pursuing a left-wing policy in organizing and defending LGBT people.
In addition, the article was based on untrue facts and distorted information, which created the reader a misconception about the organization and its activities. We evaluate this article as an attempt to create a certain public opinion before the meeting and as an attempt to raider capture of the organization.
Board of Belarusian PEN Centre (October 29) has expelled Paviel Sieviaryniec from Belarusian PEN Centre in accordance with paragraph 3.6 of the Charter of Belarusian PEN Centre. Paviel Sieviaryniec was expelled as a result of violations of paragraph 3.8(g), according to which members of Belarusian PEN Centre are obliged to defend the honour of Belarusian PEN Centre, and of paragraph 3.1, according to which members of Belarusian PEN Centre are obliged to comply with the PEN Charter (violation of that paragraph is incompatible with membership in Belarusian PEN Centre).
Board of Belarusian PEN Centre states, that Paviel Sieviaryniec:
– insulted the honour of Belarusian PEN Centre, made public offensive and hostile statements about the legitimate leadership elected by the general meeting of Belarusian PEN Centre, which violated paragraph 3.8 (g) of the Charter of Belarusian PEN Centre.
– deliberately falsified and misrepresented information for his private ends, which violated paragraph 4 of the PEN Charter, according to which members of PEN “pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood and distortion of facts for political and personal ends”.
– publicly and systematically discriminated social group LGBTQ +, which was confirmed by external expertise and which violated paragraph 3 of the PEN Charter: “Members of PEN… pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel all hatreds”.