Search Results for: Lukashenko

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, in an address Thursday to the UN Human Rights Council, called upon the Belarusian government to release more than 1000 activists, opposition members, journalists, and dissenting citizens detained on “politically motivated charges.” She stated that the Belarusian security forces had arrested more than 13,500 people, including 700 children, [...]

JURIST Belarus contributor Katsiaryna Vasilionak is a Belarusian law student in the International Law and European Union Law program at the European Humanities University, Vilnius, Lithuania. The text of this dispatch has been lightly edited to preserve the author’s voice. The war in Ukraine has lasted more than two weeks now. More than 700 civilians [...]

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, Sunday announced that the EU would ban Russian state-owned news channels RT and Sputnik and their subsidiaries. In a statement announcing sanctions against Russia, von der Leyen said, “Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies [...]

The US Department of Justice issued a statement Thursday explaining its charges of “conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy” against four Belarusian government officials for diverting a Ryanair flight in May 2021 allegedly for arresting a dissident Belarusian journalist who was on board the plane. The United States has claimed jurisdiction in the case as there [...]

Claiming that he was “restoring law and order” in Kazakhstan, President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev announced Friday that he has ordered armed forces to “shoot and kill without warning” to quash an uprising ignited by surging consumer fuel prices. “I have ordered law enforcement organizations and the army to shoot and kill without warning,” Tokayev said in [...]

Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday called participants in the fuel-price protests that have swept the Central Asian nation this week “terrorists,” accusing them of attempting to undermine their country at the behest of foreign powers, and ultimately asked Russia and the other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to come to Kazakhstan’s [...]

The Belarus Ministry of Internal Affairs (“the Ministry”) on Thursday added US-based broadcaster RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL), also known locally as Radio Svaboda, to its registry of extremist organizations. Calling it a “continued clampdown on independent media and civil society,” RFE/RL stated that the Ministry took this action based upon allegations that a group of Belarus citizens [...]

A new Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) report released Thursday finds the number of journalists who are behind bars worldwide reached a global high in 2021. CPJ finds 293 reporters were imprisoned, at least 24 journalists were killed as a result of their work, and another 18 died under mysterious circumstances as of December 1 [...]

The Council of the European Union amended its sanctions regime against Belarus on Monday, agreeing to step up sanctions in view of the situation at the EU’s border with Belarus. Belarus denounced as “absurd” Western accusations that it was driving a migrant crisis that has left thousands of people stranded on the EU border. The [...]

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Belarus and Poland to de-escalate their migrant border dispute Wednesday, claiming that both countries’ militaristic responses had put the safety of refugees in jeopardy and risked violating international refugee law. High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet Jeria said that she was “appalled” at the situation, describing large numbers [...]