{"id":53730,"date":"2023-12-06T14:52:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T11:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=53730"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"new-belarus-democracy-act-in-the-pipeline-us-congressman","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/53730\/","title":{"rendered":"New Belarus Democracy Act in pipeline \u2013 US congressman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>December 6, <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> The US Congress is preparing a new Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act, said its main author, Rep. Chris Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If adopted, it would be the fifth such act, he noted. The first version was passed by Congress in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it is critical that we support Ukraine and stop the ongoing war there, we also cannot overlook the fact that there are 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus, Smith told <em>Pozirk<\/em>. The government is arresting more and more people, and this terror tactic is working, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He went on to say that the Belarus Democracy Act authorizes programs to support democratization, calls for temporary protected status for Belarusians in the USA, and also calls for sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said he was very optimistic about the vote. The act could be passed by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The law was first adopted after Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka held a referendum to allow one person to be elected president an unlimited number of times. It was updated in 2006, 2011, and 2020 due to presidential elections and related reprisals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2020 version emphasized that \u0141uka\u0161enka was not the legitimate president of Belarus and called the opposition Coordination Council the legitimate body for dialogue on the peaceful transfer of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It expanded the ability of the United States to exert sanctions pressure on the \u0141uka\u0161enka regime and support Belarusian civil society and independent media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 6, Pozirk. The US Congress is preparing a new Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act, said its main author, Rep. Chris Smith. If adopted, it would be the fifth such act, he noted. The first version was passed by Congress in 2004. While it is critical that we support Ukraine and stop the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-53730","articles","type-articles","status-publish","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>New Belarus Democracy Act in pipeline \u2013 US congressman | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 6, Pozirk. The US Congress is preparing a new Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act, said its main author, Rep. Chris Smith. 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