August 4 — International Day of Solidarity with Belarusian human rights defenders

Civil activists launch campaign to declare August 4 International Day of Solidarity with Belarusian civil society and human rights movement.

A number of civil activists and human rights defenders of Russia and several other countries have launched an online campaign to mark August 4, the day when Viasna leader and FIDH vice-president Ales Bialiatski was arrested in 2011, International Day of Solidarity with the civil society and human rights movement of Belarus.

The initiative is aimed at expressing support to the country’s civil society, whose representatives keep promoting and protecting the standards of human rights and the rule of law, despite systemic violations of fundamental rights and freedoms: freedom of assembly, association, expression etc.

An online appeal published on a newly created web-site by.soli-day.org urges all those concerned to support the initiative by holding on the day local campaigns and events in their cities and countries to disseminate information on the state of the Belarusian civil society.