People, Power and Protest: Protecting and Promoting Human Rights in Belarus

Posted on: 23 September 2020 by Professor Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou in Blog

Prof Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou is Professor in Human Rights Law at the School of Law and Social Justice and Director of the International Law and Human Rights Unit. He discusses the situation in Belarus, where President Lukashenko has now been inaugurated despite protests over the disputed election results, and introduces a recorded webinar in which an international panel discuss the fall-out and the controversy.

In August 2020, the Presidential Elections took place in Belarus. These elections were widely regarded as unfair and its results were seen as fraudulent.

Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus since 1994, was claimed to have received 80% of the popular vote. Many people did not believe in these results and there were clear reasons for that.

The authorities did everything to prevent a fair counting of the votes: they encouraged advance voting which is very difficult to verify, and they do not really allow any independent observers.

In some places the voting was not done in secret. The independent online platform that was developed to check the counting of votes was declared illegal by the government. 

Belarus protesters in Minsk photographed by Olya Shnarkevich on Unsplash

The results of the election sparked a wave of peaceful protests across Belarus and the authorities reacted with violence and terror.

Almost all human rights were violated: thousands of people were arrested, many were tortured and abused.

In this webinar, leading scholars and practitioners discussed the situation in Belarus and how the international community can ensure that human rights abuses are not left unpunished.

You can watch the full webinar here:

The People, Power and Protest webinar was organised by Doughty Street Chambers, Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, International Bar Association and International Law and Human Rights of the University of Liverpool.

Belarus: slow international response shows limits of world's human rights regime

On the day that President Lukashenko has now been inaugurated, despite protests over the disputed election results, Kanstantsin has published a report on The Conversation.

• Read Kanstantsin's full blog 'Belarus: slow international response shows limits of world's human rights regime' on The Conversation (23 September 2020)