{"id":53528,"date":"2023-12-05T18:22:21","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T15:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=53528"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"human-rights-activists-election-campaign-started-in-oppressive-environment","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/","title":{"rendered":"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"block-image block-image-normal\">\n\n  <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"744\" height=\"496\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_744x496.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_744x496.jpg 744w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_744x496-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 744px) 100vw, 744px\" \/>\n  <figcaption>\n  \n       <div class=\"block-image__author\">\n                <span>(unsplash.com \/ Arnaud Jaegers)<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n     <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>December 5, <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections said in a situation report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The initiative, organized by the Viasna center and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, called out the lack of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, the atmosphere of total fear, and the barren political field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Existing legal remedies remain ineffective. There are no guarantees of judicial independence or predictability in law enforcement practice. All this already makes it possible to state that citizens cannot exercise their electoral rights,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The authorities have created an atmosphere of total fear, it added. They use &#8220;torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment&#8221; when carrying out politically-motivated sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freedom of speech is absent throughout the media sector, according to the report. Since 2020, the authorities have widely used criminal prosecution to pressure the media and journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They have also used the combination of &#8220;restrictive legislation, political will and oppressive practices&#8221; to force their opponents in exile, the initiative said. An estimated 200,000\u2013500,000 people have fled the country since August 9, 2020, and have no say in state affairs. Any group that seeks to participate in the elections in a way not approved by the government risks being prosecuted, the the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The par\u00adlia\u00admen\u00adtary and local elec\u00adtions are sched\u00aduled for Feb\u00adru\u00adary 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pres\u00adi\u00adden\u00adtial elec\u00adtion in 2020 sparked the largest protests in Belarus\u2019 his\u00adto\u00adry \u2013 first against fraud, then against police bru\u00adtal\u00adi\u00adty. The protests were sup\u00adpressed and fol\u00adlowed by severe reprisals, which con\u00adtin\u00adue to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The coun\u00adtry has not held a sin\u00adgle free and fair elec\u00adtion since 1996 by the stan\u00addards of the Orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtion for Secu\u00adri\u00adty and Coop\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 5, Pozirk. The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections said in a situation report. The initiative, organized by the Viasna center and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, called out the lack of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, the atmosphere of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":53454,"template":"","rubric":[14],"class_list":["post-53528","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 5, Pozirk. The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 5, Pozirk. The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/\"},\"headline\":\"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-05T15:22:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/\"},\"wordCount\":322,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/\",\"name\":\"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-05T15:22:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 5, Pozirk. The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":640},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment | Pozirk","description":"December 5, Pozirk. The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment | Pozirk","og_description":"December 5, Pozirk. The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/"},"headline":"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment","datePublished":"2023-12-05T15:22:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/"},"wordCount":322,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/","name":"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg","datePublished":"2023-12-05T15:22:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","description":"December 5, Pozirk. The election campaign in Belarus has started in an environment of ongoing repression, the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/elections_2x1.jpg","width":1280,"height":640},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53528\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Human rights activists: election campaign started in oppressive environment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/53528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=53528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}