{"id":23453,"date":"2021-03-11T13:07:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T18:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=23453"},"modified":"2021-03-12T05:45:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T10:45:01","slug":"belarus-women-at-the-forefront-of-human-rights-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=23453","title":{"rendered":"Belarus: Women at the forefront of human rights struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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. . HUMAN RIGHTS . . <\/p>\n

An article from Amnesty International<\/a><\/p>\n

Women who have played prominent roles in the protests sweeping Belarus are subject to reprisals and threats, Amnesty International said today. In a new\u00a0publication<\/a>, the organization highlights the important role women activists have played in the protests after widely contested presidential elections and reveals state reprisals against them.<\/p>\n

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Women activists told Amnesty International that they had been accused of being \u201cbad mothers\u201d and \u201cbad wives\u201d, and that the authorities had threatened to take their children away from them. They have also faced ill-treatment in detention,\u00a0and prison sentences resulting from\u00a0unfounded criminal prosecutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSvyatlana\u00a0Tshikhanouskaya, a presidential contender forced into exile, Maryia\u00a0Kalesnikava, her chief of staff thrown into prison, Marfa\u00a0Rabkova,\u00a0a jailed human rights defender, and journalists Katsyaryna\u00a0Bakhvalava\u00a0and Darya\u00a0Chultsova, both imprisoned for two years for livestreaming of a protest action \u2013 these are some of the many women whose names have become synonymous with the struggle for freedom and human rights in Belarus,\u201d said Aisha Jung, Amnesty International\u2019s Senior Campaigner on Belarus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(article continued in right column)<\/p>\n

Click here for an article on this subject in French<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Questions related to this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

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How effective are mass protest marches?<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(article continued from left column)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a deeply patriarchal society with endemic domestic violence, women in Belarus have risked everything to stand up for their beliefs. The Belarusian authorities have retaliated with measures intended to target women activists, and their organizations and families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yuliya\u00a0Mitskevich, a feminist activist who runs\u00a0a\u00a0gender-awareness organization\u00a0called Aktyunym\u00a0Byts\u00a0Faina\u00a0(It\u2019s Great to be Active), and\u00a0who is a member of a sub-group of the opposition Coordination Council,\u00a0Femgruppa, was arrested on Friday 20 October 2020 outside the offices of her organization.<\/p>\n

Yuliya was officially charged with \u201cparticipation in an illegal gathering,\u201d but she told Amnesty she believed she is being persecuted for her\u00a0work\u00a0on gender equality. The police officers who arrested Yuliya, and criminal investigators who interrogated her, asked\u00a0her\u00a0to sign a statement saying that she had taken part in illegal actions in her organizational role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey offered me incentives and threatened me too. The first time they asked about\u00a0Femgruppa, and about the women\u2019s marches and finances, but the second time they were interested in my organization,\u201d Yuliya told Amnesty International.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call\u00a0for solidarity with the brave\u00a0women of Belarus in their fight for freedom and human rights.\u00a0In\u00a0their struggle, they are challenging\u00a0patriarchal attitudes and a repressive government\u00a0intent on\u00a0suppressing\u00a0human rights\u00a0and stifling the change and progress that Belarusians are calling for,\u201d\u00a0said Aisha Jung.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Background\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amnesty International\u2019s \u202f\u202fglobal solidarity campaign was launched on 27 January 2021, with the publication of a\u202f report\u202f<\/a> revealing how the Belarusian authorities have weaponized the justice system to punish survivors of torture rather than perpetrators. The\u00a0organization produces\u00a0regular publications\u00a0that\u00a0highlight how different sectors of Belarusian society are being targeted.\u202fBelarus is currently experiencing the most egregious clampdown on human rights in its post-independence history. Amnesty International activists around the world will participate in various actions to demonstrate their solidarity with peaceful protesters in Belarus.\u202f<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . . An article from Amnesty International Women who have played prominent roles in the protests sweeping Belarus are subject to reprisals and threats, Amnesty International said today. In a new\u00a0publication, the organization highlights the important role women activists have played in the protests after widely contested presidential elections and reveals … Continue reading Belarus: Women at the forefront of human rights struggle<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,75,13,12],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-23453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democracy","category-europe","category-human-rights","category-women","tag-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}