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, ... Read More»

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. ... Read More»

  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 ... Read More»

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 ... Read More»