Belarusian democracy movement

Charter 97 is a human rights group taking its inspiration from the 1997 declarationa declaration calling for democracy in Belarus. The document – whose title deliberately echoes the Czechoslovak human rights declaration Charter 77 twenty years earlier – was created on the anniversary of a referendum held in 1996, and which, in the words of the organisation of the same name, declares: "devotion to the principles of independence, freedom and democracy, respect to the human rights, solidarity with everybody, who stands for elimination of dictatorial regime and restoration of democracy in Belarus."

The Jeans Revolution was a term used by the opposition in Belarus and its supporters to describe their effort and aspirations[3] on democratic changes in Belarus, in the period leading up to the presidential elections of 2006.

After the Belarusian presidential election, 2010, up to 40,000 people[4] protested against Lukashenko. Up to 700 opposition activists, including 7 presidential candidates, were arrested in the post-election crackdown.[5]

Several websites of the opposition and opposition candidates were also blocked or hacked.[6] Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Talk, many email services and LiveJournal were also blocked.[7] The headquarters of Charter97, an opposition group and website, was stormed by Lukashenko's security forces and all its staff was arrested.[8]

According to the Independent, Lukashenko's security forces went after his opponents "with a ferocity that would not have looked out of place in Soviet times".[1]

A series of protests influenced by the Arab Spring took place in 2011. As a result of these protests, on 29 July, the government banned assemblies and gatherings.[9]

On 25 March 2012, several thousand people participated in an anti-government rally in Belarus on the anniversary of Belarus's short-lived independence from Russia in 1918.[10] Belarusian state television reported that there were 200 protesters in Minsk.[11]

Since the ongoing economic recession, continuing since the last series of protests in 2015, due to falling gasoline prices and that year a law was passed taxing the unemployed.[12] Roughly 470,000 Belarusians are obliged to pay the tax but only about 10% have since it was issued.[12]

Approximately 2,500 protesters[13] filled the streets in capital city Minsk on 17 February to protest a policy that required those anyone who works for less than 183 days[14] per year to pay USD$250 for "lost taxes" to help fund welfare policies.[15] (This converts to approximately p.5 million—a half-month's wages.)[12] The law has proven unpopular and has been mocked in the public as the "law against social parasites".[12] On 19 February, another 2,000 demonstrated in the second city of Homieĺ.[15] Both gatherings were peaceful and were not disrupted by police. Smaller demonstrations were held in other cities.[13]

On 25 March, opposition leader Vladimir Nekliayev, who was set to speak at the main protest, was also stopped at the border in the morning on his way to Minsk, his wife said.[16]

The government defended the mass arrests and beatings against citizens by alleging that the police had found "petrol bombs and arms-laden cars" near a protest in Minsk.[17]

In June 2020, a lowered approval of Lukashenko amid his handling of the coronavirus pandemic led to street protests and the blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky labeling Lukashenko as a cockroach as in the children's poem "The Mighty Cockroach", with the slipper signifying stamping the cockroach. Many opposition candidates registered for the next election as a result of the movement, but many of the candidates were arrested.[18]

• The European Union has enforced sanctions against Lukashenko's government.
• NATO has enforced sanctions against the Lukashenko administration.

• Actors Kevin Spacey, Jude Law, Roger Lloyd-Pack and playwright Sir Tom Stoppard joined street protests in London against Lukashenko's government in 2011.
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