On June 6, 2024, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya delivered closing remarks at the panel discussion “What future awaits youth in Belarus?” in Luxembourg:
“Dear Anais,
Dear Yael Ohana,
Margo, Alina and Paul,
Dear all,
I am deeply honored to conclude this panel discussion, and I wish to thank each speaker for your insights.
Especially, I want to thank Paul Galles for making this event happen, and bringing Belarus to Luxembourg. It’s so symbolic that we start the conference from the topic of Youth.
I am so happy that the topic of youth became central in our cooperation with the Council of Europe. Dear Yael Ohana, please accept my gratitude for your personal involvement, and for bringing young Belarusians in the work of this extraordinary organization. I am really proud that my advisor Marharyta Vorykhava was elected the co-president of the Council of Europe’s Advisory Council on Youth.
Yesterday, I read the report by Anais Marin on the situation in Belarus which will be presented later this month at the Human Rights Council. It’s appalling to see how much effort Lukashenka’s regime pays to reeducate and indoctrinate young Belarusians.
You know, dictators often say that “the youth are our future”. They used to say it even in the Soviet Union, sending the youth to Gulag or to die for the empire.
Today, I’d like to say it differently: the youth are not just our future, but their own present. They want and need to live their lives now. And our goal is to make it possible for them now.
Youth is the best time of human life, the most creative one, the happiest one. Above all, youth is about freedom, and the Belarusian youth is entitled to freedom as much as all the young people in the whole world.
They need to travel, to study, to know the world in order to become themselves. They need to know that they are masters of their lives and masters of their own future.
Freedom is the best gift that a society can give its young people.
The Lukashenka regime just can’t give young people freedom. Because when the Belarusian youth felt a little freedom, they immediately went to the streets in 2020 in order to overthrow the regime. Because the youth and the dictatorship are mortal enemies.
The changes in Belarus are inevitable, because the regime with its fake old-time Soviet values is dull, and the youth can’t stand boredom, as they can’t stand injustice and lies.
The regime can brainwash children with lies about heroic deaths for the empire. But as soon as these children become teenagers, they choose life over death, love over hate, Europe over the empire, and freedom over dictatorship.
No one can dictate young people what they should do. You can trust me, I have a teenager at home.
Our youth is our pride. It’s not by chance that there are so many young people among our political prisoners, our railway partisans, our volunteer fighters in Ukraine. The dictator stole their freedom and happiness from them, he made them suffer for their dreams about change and democracy.
They deserve all the help that we can give them now, because many of them put their young lives at stake for us all.
The youth are on our side. They are always on the side of freedom. Let us be on their side, too.
We have to invest in young people in Belarus. And I want to ask all countries to provide them with scholarships, fellowships, internships, and visas. Engage them in your programs and events to ensure their stories and struggles are heard globally. Support NGOs that work with young Belarusians in exile.
We must keep them exposed to Europe and European values. Otherwise, Russia will engage them. You know that last year was the first one, when more young Belarusians went to study in Russia than to study in Europe! It’s exactly what the regime wants: to close the country to the Western lifestyle and ideas. Let’s not allow that to happen. If we lose young people, we will lose the future.
We must constantly remind the Belarusian youth that we will never stop fighting for them. For their rights, their freedom, their happiness here and now.
In this case, they will certainly take care of the future, when their time comes. They have all my trust, and they should have yours. The more we do for them now, the better future Belarus will be.
In this future Belarus, the youth will be free to pursue their dreams without fear. We have a vision of Belarus where education, freedom, and democratic participation are accessible to all.
Thank you very much,
Zhyve Belarus!”
