27 Nobel Laureates have written an open letter, demanding the release of political prisoners’ in Belarus. This also includes the release of Ales Bialiatski, who won Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
Humanitarian Catastrophe
The situation in Belarus is a “humanitarian catastrophe” as said by the Nobel Laureates. They feel that the repression in Belarus needs to end as soon as possible. Belarus, is a small country in Europe and it is a neighbor of Russia. The open letter says that in Belarus, many citizens have left the country, many have been mistreated, more than 50,000 people have been undergone political repression in the last four years.
Ales Bialiatski in Prison
Ales Bialiatski, organized mass demonstrations protesting against the controversial results of Presidential elections. After this, in 2020,he was arrested and put in the prison. While he was in custody, waiting for the trial, Ales received Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. In 2023, he was convicted of smuggling and for financing various activities against public order. Thereafter he sentenced 10 years of punishment in the prison.
The open letter was signed by four Nobel Peace laureates, Literature Laureates along with other Nobel Laureates from the fields of economics, chemistry, physics and medicine, . This included Alexandra Matviichuk from Ukraine and Dmitry Muratov from Russia and literature laureate Svetlana Alexievich from Belarus.
Opposition Leaders in Isolation
The opposition leaders have been kept in isolation by the Belarus government. They are not allowed to communicate with their lawyers and their relatives. As mentioned in a news article in AP News , an opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said to the news agency that her husband is in prison and she has not being able to communicate with him from more than one year. There are many people from the opposition who are in prison , like Viktar Babaryka, Maria Kolesnikova, Maxim Znak and Mikola Statkevich. However, there is no communication from them from a very long time.
Request from the European Union Government
The Nobel laureates have requested the governments of all the countries in the European Government to put pressure on the government of Belarus to release all the political prisoners’. They have asked the European Union government to ask President Alexander Lukashenka to end the political repression in Belarus.
The largest western neighbor, Poland has been asked in the open letter to cancel and suspend the transportation of good from railways from Belarus to the European Union. They have also asked to suspend the shipments from China and Russia to Belarus.
The letter said that every country has some kind of commercial interest. However, at the same time it is important to take a stand to save the lives of innocent people in Belarus.
UN Human Rights Council Released a Report
The UN Human Rights Council released a report about the human rights crisis in Belarus. The report analyzed the human rights situation in Belarus during and after the presidential election in 2020. The UN report says that there is a probability that crime against humanity might have been committed in Belarus.
The report also talked about deprivation of the right of life, enforced disappearance, torture and discrimination because of difference in political opinion, it presented evidences of the same as well, in the report. The report says that due to the fear of violence around 550 civil society organizations have been shut and closed. Also the report expressed, concerns that there could be more damage about the human rights situation in Belarus.
As mentioned in a news article in Jurist, the government of Belarus has been not only condemned by the United Nations but also it is disapproved by the European Union. Despite this, the political repression, property confiscation and human rights violations continue in Belarus.
