Event – Political prisoners in Belarus: The perspective of civil society
Colleagues,
My main and the most important point today would be to express our solidarity with and support to the Belarusian people and to the Belarusian civil society organisations for their work.
The peaceful demonstrations of the Belarusian people for democracy and human rights have been impressive despite the repressions against them. This includes repressions against the members of the organisations represented here today.
The number of those detained increases by day – and yet, people – women, youth, pensioners, people from all walks of life turn up day after day to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of assembly, opinion and expression.
I would echo five points made in the discussion today:
- First: We urge Belarus to respect freedom of assembly, as well as freedom of expression for all, including civil society, human rights defenders, journalists, and media workers.
- Second: We call on the authorities to release immediately and unconditionally all arbitrarily detained persons, including political prisoners.
- Third: There needs to be an end to the torture and ill-treatment of those detained – this is a call repeatedly made by the UN human rights experts and is the obligation of Belarus as a party to ICCPR and CAT.
- Fourth: We join the call to the Belarusian authorities to investigate fully all human rights violations and abuses and ensure accountability in this regard.
- Last: We cannot forget the names of those detained – we know them thanks to the organisations and people who are part of our discussion today. We need to stand by them and continue calling for their release.
Estonia will do its part in this regard, including as a member of the UN Security Council and the OSCE.
Full event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UIfBw9rhxs&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=EuropeanUnion