Right Livelihood and 2020 Laureate organisation Viasna delivered a joint statement addressing the alarming human rights situation in Belarus at the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The statement highlighted the ongoing repression of fundamental freedoms, particularly as the country prepares for a new presidential election cycle.
You can read the full statement here.
Our call for accountability stems from the 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent and marked by mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko and his government. In response to the protests, authorities launched a brutal crackdown, detaining thousands of protesters and political opponents.
While Belarus has recently released a small number of political prisoners, 1,351 individuals remain incarcerated for their peaceful activism as of late September 2024, including Viasna Chairman Ales Bialiatski. Held in a notoriously brutal prison with his health deteriorating and his communication with family severely restricted, Bialiatski’s situation reflects the harsh treatment faced by political prisoners in Belarus.
“As a new cycle of Presidential elections draws near, we remain appalled by the persistent repression of all fundamental freedoms in the country,” we told the Council. “Authorities persist in labelling individuals and organisations as extremists or terrorists, trying even those who left the country in absentia, further intensifying the crackdown and silencing dissenting voices.”
The statement followed the UN’s appointment of a new group of independent experts tasked with monitoring the human rights situation in Belarus. Their work will be crucial in the lead-up to the 2025 presidential election.
“We cannot let the next Belarusian presidential election be a replay of 2020,” we told the Council.
We called on the international community to hold Belarus accountable for its human rights violations, especially countries that are members of the International Court of Justice that can use universal jurisdiction to crack down on Belarusian authorities’ crimes.
