Search Results for: Belarus

On Wednesday, at the NATO summit in The Hague, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez formally rejected the alliance’s newly agreed aspirational guideline for member states to increase defense spending to 5% of national GDP by 2035. In a carefully negotiated compromise, NATO permitted Spain to endorse the summit’s joint communiqué with a subtle but significant [...]

I recently returned to the US from Uzbekistan. This was my second visit to that Central Asian country, and I must say that as an Afghan, it was a bittersweet experience. Uzbekistan is a beautiful, peaceful place with a rich history and a modern, vibrant identity. As a Muslim-majority nation,  it feels both culturally familiar [...]

The Investigative Committee of Yaroslavl Oblast initiated a criminal proceeding on Thursday against Russian LGBTQA+ activist Yaroslav Sirotkin on the charges of participation in an “extremist organization,” according to local media. According to the investigation, Sirotkin posted 14 social media posts and videos that included “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” between December 2023 and January [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and six other European media freedom organizations called on Poland’s newly elected president to urgently pursue reforms to uphold press freedom in the country. The coalition urged President-elect Karol Nawrocki to foster non-partisan cooperation in government in order to implement the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and adopt legal safeguards against [...]

A group of UN human rights experts on Thursday urged the Belarusian government to stop targeting independent trade unions and comply with international labor standards. The experts—a group of five Special Rapporteurs—called on Belarus to cooperate with the UN and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to protect the rights of trade union leaders and members, [...]

At a time when Western institutions continue to dominate the international legal stage, China has made a bold declaration of intent to offer an alternative narrative of global order by establishing a new mediation organization in Hong Kong. The International Organization for Mediation (IOMed)—with the participation of over 30 countries including Pakistan, Indonesia, Belarus, and [...]

Lithuania filed a case against Belarus at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday, seeking damages in relation to the alleged large-scale smuggling of irregular migrants into Lithuania by the Lukashenko regime. The case revolves around alleged breaches by Belarus of its obligations under the UN Protocol against the smuggling of Migrants by Land, [...]

A group of independent human rights experts on Monday urged the release of political detainees with disabilities and serious health conditions in Belarus, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reported. The group of experts said the Belarusian government should consider the immediate release or non-custodial sanctions for persons with disabilities detained in the context of [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday criticized Polish legislation suspending the right to asylum applications for migrants crossing the border from Belarus. According to AI, the law effectively codifies the unlawful forced return of migrants by authorizing border guards to disregard asylum applications without properly considering a person’s individual’s circumstances. AI alleges that the legislation, enacted [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday announced that the economic indicator in its 2025 World Press Freedom Index has fallen to an unprecedented critical low, prompting the global state of press freedom to be classified as in a “difficult situation” for the first time in the Index’s history. Of the five metrics RSF tracks, the [...]