Background
In the Republic of Belarus that for 26 years has been under the authoritarian rule of Aleksander Lukashenka, the last presidential elections of August the 9th, 2020 have proved a tipping point. Protesting against the results of elections that were, as widely believed, blatantly falsified by the incumbent President, hundreds of thousand people took to the streets in overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations and marches. The authorities’ response to the protests was massive, brutal force on an unprecedented scale. Trying to stifle the protests, the Lukashenka administration’s forces have systematically detained, beaten and tortured people in large numbers. Four people have died in the course of the protests, and there have been allegations of rape, electrocution and other forms of physical and psychological torture. According to the Viasna human rights centre, by the end of November 2020 the total count of those detained for taking part in protests by Belarusian security forces exceeded 30,000. Аs of December 5, 2020, тhere were 159 political prisoners in Belarus.
The OSCE Rapporteur’s Report under the Moscow Mechanism on Alleged Human Rights Violations related to the Presidential Elections of 9 August 2020 in Belarus, released on Nov 5, 2020, documented major human rights abuses, which were found to be massive and systematic and proven beyond doubt.
The project’s goals
Due to their scale and brutality, the crimes and human right violations that have taken place in Belarus since August 2020 can arguably be qualified as crimes against humanity. However, so long as the current authorities remain in power, the people of Belarus are deprived of justice in their own country. This project has been initiated as a response to the call of the Belarusian people for justice. We are determined to accomplish the task of bringing the illegitimate President of the Republic of Belarus and his accomplices to accountability according to the standards of international law, primarily through the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC), the only juridical institution in the world with the jurisdiction over crimes against humanity.