Winners of 2023 human rights awards named

December 10, Pozirk. The Belarusian human rights community has announced the winners of its 2023 awards today in Vilnius, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reported.

This year’s prizes were awarded in four categories instead of the usual three.

Aleh Ahiejeŭ and Natalla Mackievič were named Human Rights Defenders of the Year.

Ahiejeŭ is the deputy chairman of the BAJ and the head of its law center. He fled Belarus after a search in February 2021.

Mackievič is a lawyer with 27 years of experience. She defended Viktar Babaryka, Siarhiej Cichanoŭski, Mikałaj Dziadok, and other well-known political prisoners. She was disbarred in October 2021 and left Belarus with her husband in November.

The Journalist of the Year award went to political prisoner Alaksandar Mancevič, editor in chief of the independent Rehijanalnaja Hazieta.

On November 3, the Minsk region’s Maładziečna District Court sentenced him to four years in prison, the maximum penalty enshrined in Article 369.1 of the Belarusian Criminal Code. In addition, Mancevič was fined 14,800 rubels (some $4,500 at the current exchange rate).

According to investigators, Mancevič and others deliberately discredited Belarus and its authorities in print and online. The editor pleaded not guilty. In his final statement to the court, he said he loved Belarus and its people.

The newspaper had been published since 1995. It covered current affairs in seven districts of the Minsk and Hrodna regions: Maładziečna, Miadzieł, Vilejka, Smarhoń, Vałožyn, Ašmiany, and Astraviec. In July 2021, under pressure from the authorities, Rehijanalnaja Hazieta surrendered its print version.

The evacuation service of the BySol solidarity foundation was awarded the Human Rights Organization of the Year prize. It is noted that it helped “a huge number of people” to flee politically-motivated persecution in Belarus in 2023. Over 1,800 people have been helped to leave the country since 2020.

Political prisoner Palina Šarenda-Panasiuk of the European Belarus campaign became the first laureate in the new Human Rights Solidarity category.

In June 2021, a district court in Brest sentenced her to two years in prison for alleged violence against a police officer and insults against state officials. She subsequently received additional sentences for allegedly disobeying the prison administration. Šarenda-Panasiuk has often faced pressure such as detention in a punishment cell and deprivation of food and medicine parcels.

The Belarusian human rights community established the annual awards in 2008.

This year, the organizing committee included eight human rights organizations. Committee members are not named for security reasons.