FIDH: Civil society under attack

Situation of human rights and civil society in Belarus remains dramatic.

Ales Bialiatski, Vice-president of FIDH and President of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, is still in jail along with numerous other political prisoners; all continue to be subjected to further harassment even behind bars.

To shed light on this intolerable situation, FIDH has launched a new version of the website dedicated to our country. This site will inform and mobilise the international community loudly speaking out for the Belarusian civil society, which continues its courageous work despite the on-going pressure.

More user-friendly freeales.fidh.net provides new sections where you can access daily up-dates of news about the continuing assaults on civil society and international reactions to them. You will, of course, still find news about Ales Bialiatski as well as background information about this symbolic case.

The website is accessible in English, Russian and French, and contains hundreds of photo and video materials.

See how you can take action to support Belarusian civil society and help to free political prisoners.

Since the arrest of Ales Bialiatski, the International Federation for Human Rights has been campaigning for the release of the human rights defender. In 2007, just three years after "Viasna" joined FIDH, Ales Bialiatski was elected its vice-president. He became the first representative of the post-Soviet countries to be elected to the FIDH international management at a Congress, which brought together 164 member organizations from around the world.