The NHC Joins International Campaign For Justice From Belarusian Judges

On the initiative of Libereco, twenty human rights organisations from ten different countries signed a letter that has been sent to 413 Belarusian judges. In the letter, the organisations call out the judges’ involvement in human rights abuses and unjust imprisonment of innocent people in Belarus.

The judges addressed have been involved in the political trials and sentencing of peaceful protestors, persons opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine and persons who have just demand basic rights, many of whom are now declared as political prisoners.

Belarusian judges play a vital part in the authoritarian regime of dictator Alexander Lukashenko. They regularly deny a defendant’s basic legal rights to a fair trial, rule that courts are closed during trials, they fail in basic standards of impartiality, and regularly pass down punitive sentences. Judges are a group who are instrumental to Lukashenko’s campaign of brutality and oppression, yet they are a group who have been largely ignored by the international community. The joint international campaign draws the judges into the spotlight.

The organisations who have signed the letter are:

Libereco Germany (Germany)
Libereco Switzerland (Switzerland)
Ice & Fire Theatre (UK)
Index on Censorship (UK)
Foundation Max van der Stoel (The Netherlands)
Lawyers for Lawyers (The Netherlands)
European Exchange (Germany)
Italian Federation for Human Rights (Italy)
Article 19 Europe (UK)
ACAT Belgium (Belgium)
Norwegian Helsinki Committee (Norway)
Campax (Switzerland)
MARA – Belarusians in Nederland (The Netherlands)
ACAT Switzerland (Switzerland)
Gruppe für eine Schweiz ohne Armee (Switzerland)
We Remember (The Netherlands)
Netherlands Helsinki Committee (The Netherlands)
Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House (Lithuania)
Ligue Algérienne pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (Algeria)
Östgruppen (Sweden)