Endangered Scholars Worldwide calls attention to and condemns the ongoing detention of Belarusian students in no uncertain terms for their nonviolent activities. Since the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections in August 2020, thousands of protestors took over the Belarusian capital of Minsk and other major cities, demanding that Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko leaves office. Reports indicated that riot police and security forces responded with unnecessary violence and mass arrests of protesters.
The Government of Belarus must put an end to ongoing human rights violations. In particular, we call on the Belarus Government:
To immediately release all those unlawfully or arbitrarily detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and participation;
To respect the right of peaceful assembly, and cease the violent dispersal of peaceful assemblies and judicial retaliation against organizers and participants;
To create an enabling environment for all individuals, human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers to participate in public affairs and carry out their activities safely and freely;
To ensure that prompt, thorough, independent, transparent, and impartial investigations are conducted into all allegations of torture and other human rights violations, including the deaths of at least four persons in the context of the protests; to hold perpetrators to account, and to provide justice truth and reparations to victims and their families;
Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the brutal treatment of student protesters in Belarus and stands in solidarity with Belarusians in their struggle for freedom and a peaceful transition to democracy. The widespread arrests, trials, and imprisonments of Belarus’s students are particularly appalling.
Please sign the petition Below
Source: