Belarusian human rights activists to be awarded in Stockholm

13.06.2006.

The information is provided by the Swedish Helsinki Committee.
The Anna Lindh Memorial Fund will hand out an annual Anna Lindh Award to Tatsiana Raviaka. The prize instituted by the Swedish Government in the memory of Per Anger will be given to Aliaksandr Bialiatski. The ceremony will take place on June 14 in Stockholm.

The fact that two organisations independent from each other have awarded Belarusian human rights defenders shows that the world takes the Belarusian struggle for human rights seriously, and hopefully that will strengthen the work for a safer and more democratic Belarus, says Ingvar Carlsson, chairman of the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund.

As leader of Viasna Aljaksandr Bialiatski has for ten years in different ways helped and offered legal assistance to thousands of people that were under the attack of the regime. The jury described its choice in the following way: for his fearless struggle for the rights of ordinary people to fight repression and abuses of human rights, Aljaksandr Bialiatski is awarded the 2006 years Per Anger Prize for humanitarian and democracy promoting efforts.

He and his colleagues have been put on trial many times for their struggle. Despite threats and harassments he and his organisation have continued to monitor and act against the continuous human rights abuses of the Belarusian regime. It is people like Bialiatski that keep the dream about a future democratic Belarus alive, says Robert Hеrdh, secretary general of the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the organisation that nominated Bialiatski to the Per Anger Prize.

The 2006 years Anna Lindh-scholarship is awarded Tatsiana Revjaka with the following explanation from the board: With devotion, empathy and persistency Tatsiana Revjaka manages to reveal abuses and to give support to the victims. Fearless she despises a political repression and spreads knowledge about an alternative society where the rights of the individual are respected. Her courageous and purposeful work inspires and contributes to creating prerequisites for an open and democratic Belarus.

Tatsiana Revjaka pursues an immensely important work to spread knowledge about human rights and about the abuses that are carried out in Belarus. As a leading representative of the human rights organisation Viasna she has contributed vastly to promoting democracy, freedom of expression and human rights. Tatsiana Revjaka is a particularly worthy recipient of the scholarship, says the chairman of the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund, Ingvar Carlsson.

The Anna Lindh Memorial Fund was established to honour the memory of Anna Lindh and to show that violence can not conquer the belief that one can make a difference through peaceful means and democratic channels. The Memorial Fund is awarding an annual scholarship to a person, organisation or project that works in the spirit of Anna Lindh. For more information see: www.annalindhsminnesfond.se

The Living History Forum is commissioned on behalf of the government to administer and award an annual prize to the memory of ambassador Per Anger. The prize is international to its nature and is awarded for humanitarian and democracy promoting efforts. The first prize-winner was chosen in 2004. More information on: http://peranger.levandehistoria.se/