As delivered by Ambassador Michael Carpenter to the Permanent Council, Vienna May 11, 2023 Thank you, Professor Ascensio, for joining us today and for your detailed report . The images of hundreds of thousands of Belarusians peacefully demonstrating in the streets, everywhere from small villages to the boulevards of Minsk, to protest the Lukashenka regime’s …

PRESS STATEMENT VEDANT PATEL, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON MARCH 25, 2023 Today, we celebrate, along with Belarusians across the world, Belarus Freedom Day.  This day highlights the democratic legacy of the first independent Belarusian state, established in 1918 after 150 years of Russian occupation. Despite the Lukashenka regime’s complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine, brave Belarusians continue to stand up for …

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesperson For Immediate Release  STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN March 24, 2023 The United States continues to promote accountability for the Lukashenka regime’s violence surrounding the fraudulent August 2020 presidential election in Belarus, its ongoing brutal crackdown against the pro-democracy movement and other elements of Belarusian society, …

Joint Statement: Moscow Mechanism Invocation on Human Rights Violations and Abuses in the Republic of Belarus As delivered Ambassador Jocelyn Kinnear, Permanent Representative of Canada to the OSCE to the Permanent Council, Vienna March 23, 2023 I am delivering this statement on behalf of the following delegations: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, …

PRESS STATEMENT VEDANT PATEL, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON MARCH 23, 2023 The United States and 37 other countries have invoked the OSCE Moscow Mechanism requesting that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) establish an expert mission to examine the dire and continuous deterioration of the human rights situation in Belarus. …

  READOUT Office of the Spokesperson March 22, 2023 The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel: Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with Belarusian Democratic Leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya today in Washington, D.C.  In advance of Belarus Freedom Day on March 25, the Deputy Secretary expressed the United States’ continuing commitment to …

The United States categorically rejects the verdict pronounced today by a Minsk court in the cases of Viasna leaders Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovich, Dzmitry Salauyou, and Uladzimir Labkovicz. And yet, we are not surprised. Sentences of 7-10 years in detention have become a regular part of the lexicon of repression utilised by the Lukashenka regime …