Solidarity Action In Belarus In Amsterdam :: Charter'97 :: News

An action of solidarity with Belarusian opposition was carried out by activists of the Amnesty International in Amsterdam on Tuesday. The protest was held in Amsterdam University. Stands with portraits of missing and logos of the youth resistance movement Zubr stood in the hall of the University. Human rights activists offered students to sign appeal to Alyaksandar Lukashenka with the demand to stop persistent violations of International Convention on civil and political rights. They paid special attention to violations of Articles 19, 21 and 22, where the freedom of expression and freedom of speech, right for peaceful assemblies and associations, including trade unions, are proclaimed. Besides, the students and professors were given information materials on human rights violations in Belarus, and about abducted politicians in particular. After collecting signatures, Amnesty activists threw parts of Lukashenka’s portraits on the floor and swept them away. On the next day the appeal with signatures of more than a hundred of students was sent to Lukashenka.

Suzanne Diederen, chairperson of Amnesty International UvA Student group and contact person of the Belarus section, told Zubr press service about significance of such solidarity actions:

“It is not the first our action on Belarusian problem. That is why we have already achieved some results. We see that the Belarusian topic is more and more popular among our students, who regularly hold solidarity actions and write petitions to Lukashenka. It helps to attract attention of the public and politicians to the problem of human rights in Belarus. I am sure that opinion of the European politicians on the situation in Belarus is formed also thanks to the fact that our organization and other organizations do not let to shut eyes to political repression. We address also Belarusian authorities, we say Lukashenka that he must stop human rights violations, if he do not want his country to become even more isolated”.