International Trade Union Confederation Supports Belarusian Political Prisoners

A solidarity effort is taking place in front of the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

The International Trade Union Confederation has declared June 8 the Day of Solidarity with Belarusian trade unionists in custody and is holding a solidarity effort in Geneva in front of the UN Palace of Nations on this day to support them. The press service of Amnesty International reported it to Charter97.org.

On Wednesday, the city hosts a meeting of the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labor Conference, which considers the situation with the persecution of the trade union movement in Belarus.

Amnesty International shares concerns about the repressions against trade union activists that swept the country in April this year. Dozens of trade union leaders and responsible persons of professional associations were detained or arrested at that time. Many of them remain in custody. Aliaksandr Yarashuk, the chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Union (BKDP), his deputy Siarhei Antusevich and the head of the Belarusian Radio and Electronic Industry Workers' Union (REP), Henadz Fedynich, are among them.

They are currently behind bars. They are charged under Article 342 of the Criminal Code (group actions that grossly violate public order).

They face up to four years in prison if found guilty. Furthermore, similar charges were brought against Mikalai Sharakh, the chairman of the Free Trade Union of Belarus (SPB), and Aliaksandr Bukhvostau, the head of the Free Trade Union of Metalworkers (SPM). They were released with written undertaking not to leave the place.

“The Belarusian authorities are consistently destroying the remaining non-controlled civil society organizations in the country. The repression has not bypassed the independent trade unions, which played an important role in the peaceful protests of 2020, which were brutally suppressed by the authorities. We welcome the international campaign of solidarity with the persecuted Belarusian trade unionists and demand that the Belarusian authorities stop the repression against peaceful dissent,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.