Pro-democracy activists! They carry a smile, a thoughtful look, firm, polite, affable, and fearless, which the regimes they fight against fear.
Ales Beliatsky is no different.
He is a pro-democracy activist, a strident opponent of capital punishment and the organisation he founded, “Viasna” is a “leading non-governmental organisation contributing to the development of the civil society in Belarus through documenting human rights abuses and monitoring elections.”
The 60-year-old has been leading an almost 30-year campaign in Belarus for democracy and freedom.
Belarus, under the rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, is often referred to as “Europe’s last dictatorship”. The Belarusian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 2015 Svetlana Alexievich in an interview early this year had acknowledged that, “there is still a long way to go along the road to freedom.”
She’s right as Bialiastski has been in prison last year on a charge of “tax evasion widely considered to be politically motivated.” according to reports.
In a disputed presidential election, Alexander Lukashenko was declared the victor — by a landslide — in the August 9 2020 vote. In fact, he has been declared the winner of every presidential election held in the country since it split from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Following the 2020 presidential election, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the rigged results.
It was the year, Bialiastski won the Right Livelihood Award (The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to “honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.”). In 2021, he was put in prison.
In 1996, according to Right Livelihood Award site, “Bialiastski founded the Minsk-based Human Rights Center “Viasna” to provide support for political prisoners. It has since become the country’s leading non-governmental organisation contributing to the development of the civil society in Belarus through documenting human rights abuses and monitoring elections.”
Since the mid-1980s, Bialiatski has led a nonviolent and nonpartisan campaign to ensure that democratic freedoms and a vibrant civil society are established in Belarus. As part of this work, Bialiatski has campaigned to end the death penalty. As an active member of the national human rights movement, Bialiatski has been arrested and spent several years in prison on trumped-up charges, as Belarusian authorities tried to impede him. The government has also frequently targeted Viasna and its members.
However, Bialiatski and Viasna’s persistent and long-standing efforts to empower the people of Belarus and ensure their democratic rights have rendered them an unstoppable force for freedom. During pro-democracy protests, including the large-scale demonstrations in the aftermath of the 2020 fraudulent presidential elections, Viasna has been playing a leading role in advocating for the freedom of assembly, defending the rights of people arrested for protesting and documenting human rights abuses. Bialiatski is also a member of the Coordination Council, which was set up in August 2020 by opposition and civil society figures with the aim of facilitating a peaceful transfer of power in the country, noted Right Livelihood Award site.
Bialiatski and “Viasna” continue to stand for the multitude of courageous people protesting Lukashenko’s dictatorial reign at high personal risk. Through their commitment to democracy and freedom, Bialiatski and Viasna have laid the foundations of a peaceful and democratic society in Belarus, the site added.