Under JEF Europe’s Umbrella, over 125 Cities of the World Unite in Solidarity with Belarus

The global protest against the human rights situation in Belarus, which took place on Thursday 18th March 2010, saw young people in well over 125 cities, towns and villages simultaneously carry out the same action. The young activists who support JEF’s views on Belarus took to the streets in their local area, armed only with cloth, banners and sometimes ladders. The aim? To gag statues, monuments and members of the public to symbolically prevent them from speaking freely – much like the situation for many individuals, organisations and political movements in Belarus. During the street action, the participants drew lots of public attention, which served as a perfect opportunity for them to engage with passers by to raise further awareness of this vastly important campaign. Young activists on the street also enjoyed hanging signs from the statues bearing the message ’Free Belarus’ or, ’Give the People of Belarus a Voice’, which can often remain in place for days – thus spreading the message of the campaign to a wider audience.

The aim? To gag statues, monuments and members of the public to symbolically prevent them from speaking freely – much like the situation for many individuals, organisations and political movements in Belarus.

Although this is a European campaign to rid the continent of it’s last dictatorship, the action has drawn attention from engaged young people wanting to show their solidarity with Belarus from all four corners of the world. This year, in addition to the various cities that participated in most European countries, young activists also took to the streets in three Indonesian cities (Jakarta, Yogyakarta & Semarang), three cities in the USA (Baltimore, Alburqurque and Washington DC), five cities in Russia (Moscow, Omsk, Orenburg, Penza & St. Petersburg), two cities in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) alongside those actions that took place in Pakistan, Yemen, Cambodia and of course, Belarus (just to name a few)! It is important to note that some young people who protested in their capitals, especially in Minsk, did so at the risk of imprisonment at the hand of their national governments, as they too do not celebrate the freedom to publicly protest as many in Europe do.

All actions took place without any obstacles or quandaries. All actions, that is, but one. During this week’s action in Omsk, Russia, young people campaigning for Belarusians to have the right to speak freely, found their own speech thwarted. Read more about this situation here.

In order to make this year’s political message of the street action as powerful and effective as possible, JEF Europe decided to once again partner with a number of other organisations across Europe and the wider world. Partner organisations ranged from those with a youth focus, like the European Youth Forum (YFJ), those with a human rights agenda, like Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights to those active in the political field, such as the Russian United Democratic Party (Yabloko). In addition to such partnerships with organisations, this year JEF Europe called on political figureheads to become patrons of the campaign and add their names to a list of official supporters. European supporters of the action this year included Elisabeth Schroedter MEP, Marek Migalski MEP, María Muñiz de Urquiza MEP, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo and, as always, Alaksandar Milinkievič, leader of the opposition parties in Belarus.

With the number of supporters and partners growing, the young people of Europe and the wider world will not cease to fight for a free and democratic Belarus, and JEF Europe will continue to demonstrate and campaign in this manner each year until the last European dictatorship falls, and the EU addresses the human rights violations in Belarus with one united voice. JEF Europe deems it utterly appalling that the EU has refused to reinstate Lukashenko’s suspended travel ban and tighten sanctions against Belarus in return for respect for political opposition, minorities, human rights and freedom of the press, so this year, such demands will form the basis of our message.

With the number of supporters and partners growing, the young people of Europe and the wider world will not cease to fight for a free and democratic Belarus

Over the coming weeks, JEF Europe will collate the thousands of images that have emerged from the countless young people involved in the campaign so that they can be utilised to make this important political statement on their behalf. It is on this week however, that the young people of the world remembered the occasion 5 years ago, when Lukashenko manipulated the presidential elections, cheated the people of Belarus and kick started the nation’s downward spiral into a society without legal freedoms and upstanding human rights.