Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends an expanded format meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Minsk, Belarus June 27, 2025. Sputnik/Sergey Bobylev/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) – The governments of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom condemned what they called ongoing repression and human rights violations in Belarus and accused Belarusian authorities of waging a campaign to shut down civil society, independent media and any form of political opposition.
KEY QUOTES
“We — Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom — stand united in condemning the ongoing repression and human rights violations,” the three countries said in a joint statement on Saturday.
“Thousands have been unjustly detained, subjected to torture, or forced into exile. These actions represent a flagrant breach of Belarus’ international law obligations and are a serious violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” they added, urging Belarusian authorities “to end their campaign of repression.”
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has led Belarus through more than three decades of authoritarian rule and was re-elected in January for a seventh five-year term.
Lukashenko crushed huge street protests in 2020 after an election the opposition and Western governments accused him of stealing, and all his leading opponents were jailed or forced to flee the country.
Several hundred people convicted of extremism and other politically related offences have been released since mid-2024 in what analysts see as a bid by Lukashenko to ease his isolation from the West. However, human rights groups say nearly 1,200 are still behind bars.
Lukashenko denies there are any political prisoners in the country.
Australia, Canada and the UK said they welcomed the recent releases of several political prisoners in Belarus but added that they remain concerned by what they termed as continued arrests and persecution of individuals for exercising their human rights.
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Kanishka Singh is a breaking news reporter for Reuters in Washington DC, who primarily covers US politics and national affairs in his current role. His past breaking news coverage has spanned across a range of topics like the Black Lives Matter movement; the US elections; the 2021 Capitol riots and their follow up probes; the Brexit deal; US-China trade tensions; the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan; the COVID-19 pandemic; and a 2019 Supreme Court verdict on a religious dispute site in his native India.
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