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UN Watch brought Belarusian President-elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to the floor of the U.N. Human Rights Council to discuss dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko’s repressive detention of political prisoners.
Full Remarks:
Distinguished representatives,
In Belarus, over 1,400 political prisoners remain behind bars. They are teachers, doctors, journalists, and activists. Their crime? Speaking the truth and dreaming of freedom.
Many of them are held in complete isolation—incommunicado—no letters, no phone calls, no contact with the outside world. My husband, Siarhei, has been cut off for over a year. I don’t know if he’s alive. We haven’t heard from Viktar Babaryka, Maryia Kalesnikava, Ihar Losik, or many others.
Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski doesn’t receive necessary medication. This is psychological torture—not just for them, but for their families.
Belarusian prisons are death traps. Since 2020, five political prisoners have already died in custody, including Ales Pushkin and Vitold Ashurak. We cannot wait for more deaths.
I urge the United Nations to act. Demand an end to incommunicado detention. Demand access to medical care and communication with families for all political prisoners. This is not just a political issue—it’s a matter of life and death.
I ask world leaders to make the release of political prisoners a priority. Raise your voices. Use your influence. Sanction those responsible. Together, we can stop this terror and restore hope to Belarus.
Thank you.
