April 26 marks 29 years since the Viasna Human Rights Center was launched.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “For 29 years, Viasna has been defending Belarusians’ rights. It’s been 29 years of tireless work for justice. Throughout this time, dozens of human rights defenders have stood beside everyone who fell into the repressive grip of the regime in Belarus.
Viasna is about people. It is Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski, human rights defender Marfa Rabkova, lawyer Uladzimir Labkovich, and volunteer Andrei Chapiuk. It is the team that tells the stories of political prisoners, verifies facts, documents violations, compiles statistics, and coordinates assistance. And they continue to do all of this even when they are labeled ‘extremists’, when their websites are blocked, and when imprisonment threatens anyone working with the team.
Ales Bialiatski once said: “Those who unjustly throw writers, actors, and cultural figures behind bars and violate human rights are destroying the Belarusian people and national sovereignty.”
And it is precisely the work of Viasna’s team and Belarusian human rights defenders that shows Belarusians have rights – and that there will always be people ready to defend them. I am deeply grateful to you, dear friends, for your resilience and humanity. For the fact that, no matter what, you never leave people alone with their misfortune”.
Photo: Euroradio
