Professor Elena Korosteleva, conjointly with Doughty Street Chambers, Bar Human Rights Committee, and Human Rights Institute, organised the second webinar on the crisis in Belarus titled ‘Belarus on the Edge: Europe on the Brink?’ which took place 24 September 2020 via zoom (recording available here soon). The situation in Belarus is worrying. Nearly 13,000 people have been detained. 300 were detained on Wednesday alone when Lukashenko had the temerity to be sworn in as President in private. The formal opposition is either under arrest or forced out of Belarus. Activists continue to be harassed, intimidated or imprisoned, with regime threatening parents with revocation of their rights and taking children to custody if parents continue to protest: see here.
The speakers included Natallia Satsunkevich (NGO Viasna Belarus), Pavel Kuryan (Belarus/international lawyer), Julia Korosteleva (Professor in Business Economics UCL SSEES), Bill Bowring (Professor of Law and Human Rights, Birbeck College), Boriss Cilevics (COE and PACE OSCE), and Nadzeya Husakouskaya (Amnesty International). Baroness Kennedy was chairing the discussion, and Professor Elena Korosteleva offered concluding remarks, also mentioning about the launch of the Belarus International Committee. The speakers addressed the issue of human rights violations, economic issues, smart sanctions, legal and political instruments to put pressure on the regime, and the gender dimension of the protests. The webinar attracted over 150 participants, and will continue monitoring the situation in Belarus.