From March 3 to 6, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will visit four Italian cities as part of her working trip, during which she will hold a series of high-level meetings.
Ms. Tsikhanouskaya will deliver a speech at the second meeting of the “For a Democratic Belarus” Alliance of Parliamentary Groups. This event will bring together representatives from 20 parliaments worldwide, Belarusian experts, human rights defenders, members of the Coordination Council, Belarusian political parties, and People’s Embassies. The first such meeting took place in Germany in 2023.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will also meet with the mayors of Florence, Milan, and Bologna to discuss possible premises that could be allocated to open a shelter for Belarusians fleeing the country. In Milan, she will attend the opening of an exhibition dedicated to political prisoners in Belarus.
The discussions during Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s visit will cover:
- ways to secure the release of political prisoners in Belarus;
- visa support and Belarusians’ mobility;
- legalization of stay for Belarusians in Italy;
- efforts to hold the regime’s collaborators accountable for human rights violations and involvement in the war in Ukraine;
- ways to strengthen Italy’s cooperation with Belarus’ democratic forces.
