Detained journalists of Belsat TV and RFE/RL, Tatsiana Kuzina and Valeryia Kastsiuhova are new political prisoners

Joint state­ment by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty

Min­sk – July 20, 2021

On June 29, Tat­siana Kuz­i­na, a well-known expert of the pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion research cen­ter SYMPA, was detained in Belarus. On June 30, after a search, Valeryia Kast­si­uho­va, a polit­i­cal sci­en­tist, ana­lyst, and edi­tor of the Nashe Mneniye site, was detained and tak­en into cus­tody.

On July 16, after sev­er­al raids, the police detained RFE/RL jour­nal­ists Aleh Hruzdzilovich, Inesa Studzin­skaya and Ali­ak­san­dr Dashchyn­s­ki, known for their cov­er­age of major social and polit­i­cal events in Belarus, as well as jour­nal­ists of Bel­sat TV Han­na Halio­ta and Ihar Iliyash.

In this regard, we, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian human rights com­mu­ni­ty, declare that for a long time the Belaru­sian author­i­ties have been pur­pose­ful­ly pur­su­ing a pol­i­cy of restrict­ing rights and free­doms, repress­ing civ­il soci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives and restrict­ing the abil­i­ty of cit­i­zens to freely seek and receive infor­ma­tion. After the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, this process has esca­lat­ed on a dai­ly basis: the author­i­ties demon­stra­tive­ly sup­press any dis­sent, and any action that has a legit­i­mate aim under Arti­cle 19 of the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights, i.e. the right to free­dom of expres­sion, the right to hold opin­ions, includ­ing the free­dom to seek, receive and impart infor­ma­tion and ideas of all kinds, regard­less of fron­tiers, oral­ly, in writ­ing or through print or artis­tic expres­sion, or by oth­er means of their choice, shall give rise to arbi­trary pros­e­cu­tion.

We empha­size that any restric­tions on the right under Art. 19 of the ICCPR are per­mit­ted sole­ly for the respect of the rights and rep­u­ta­tions of oth­ers and for the pro­tec­tion of pub­lic safe­ty, pub­lic order, pub­lic health or morals.

We share the view that “all human rights are uni­ver­sal, indi­vis­i­ble and inter­de­pen­dent and inter­re­lat­ed. Nowhere is this inter­de­pen­dence more obvi­ous than in the dis­cus­sion of free­dom of expres­sion in rela­tion to oth­er human rights. The real­iza­tion of the right to free­dom of expres­sion enables vibrant, mul­ti-faceted pub­lic inter­est debate giv­ing voice to dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives and view­points. Respect for free­dom of expres­sion has a cru­cial role to play in ensur­ing democ­ra­cy and sus­tain­able human devel­op­ment, as well as in pro­mot­ing inter­na­tion­al peace and secu­ri­ty.”

At the same time, we note with con­cern that the pro­gres­sive and demo­c­ra­t­ic approach to the imple­men­ta­tion of the right under Arti­cle 19 of the ICCPR is being replaced in Belarus with aggres­sive state pro­pa­gan­da impos­ing an offi­cial ide­ol­o­gy that incites hatred of dis­sent, alter­na­tive polit­i­cal posi­tions and social views and pref­er­ences.

Thus, we believe that the impris­on­ment of Tat­siana Kuz­i­na, Valeryia Kast­si­uho­va, Aleh Hruzdzilovich, Inesa Studzin­skaya, Ali­ak­san­dr Dashchyn­s­ki, Ihar Iliyash, and Han­na Halio­ta is sole­ly linked to their beliefs, as well as in con­nec­tion with the non-vio­lent exer­cise of free­dom of expres­sion and infor­ma­tion, as guar­an­teed by the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights and the Euro­pean Con­ven­tion for the Pro­tec­tion of Human Rights and Fun­da­men­tal Free­doms. The above detainees are there­fore polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in accor­dance with para­graph 3.1 (a) of the Guide­lines on the Def­i­n­i­tion of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers.

We call on the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to:

• imme­di­ate­ly release polit­i­cal pris­on­ers Tat­siana Kuz­i­na, Valeryia Kast­si­uho­va, Aleh Hruzdzilovich, Inesa Studzin­skaya, Ali­ak­san­dr Dashchyn­s­ki, Ihar Iliyash, and Han­na Halio­ta and stop the crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion against them;
• imme­di­ate­ly release all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and end polit­i­cal repres­sion in the coun­try.

Human Rights Cen­ter «Vias­na»

Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee

PEN Belarus

Belaru­sian Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter

Legal Ini­tia­tive

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Barys Zvozskau Belaru­sian Human Rights House