The Belarusian dictator Lukashenko and his regime have been violating international law and human rights with increasing intensity and brutality.
The Parliamentary Assembly should demand the immediate release of the illegally arrested Roman Protasevich and of all leaders and activists of democratic political forces and civil society in Belarus.
The Assembly should condemn the forced landing, which can be likened to a hijacking, of a European Union passenger aircraft on 23 May 2021 during its flight from Athens to Vilnius. This incident is a terrorist act against European Union member States and their citizens and the fact that NATO, the European Union, the United States and many other representatives of the democratic international community condemned this action in clear terms should be welcome.
The mass repression by the Belarusian authorities against their own citizens as a clear violation of international law. Recent official statements by Belarusian politicians that the country’s authorities intend to continue carrying out acts of repression against their opponents both at home and abroad are unacceptable. So is the recently observed practice by Belarusian authorities to facilitate illegal trafficking of migrants via Belarus to Lithuania and Poland, as revenge for those countries’ policies in support of democracy in Belarus.
The Assembly should therefore, without delay, investigate and prepare a report on this issue.