{"id":5781,"date":"2022-07-06T12:54:51","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T08:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freecitizen.am\/?p=5781"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:41:09","slug":"eap-csf-steering-committee-statement-on-the-sentencing-of-political-prisoner-philosopher-and-civil-society-leader-uladzimir-matskevich-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/?p=5781","title":{"rendered":"EaP CSF Steering Committee Statement on the sentencing of political prisoner, philosopher and civil society leader Uladzimir Matskevich"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_0 et_pb_with_background et_section_regular et_had_animation\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_0 et_had_animation\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et_pb_column_0 et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_2 et_pb_text_align_justified et_pb_bg_layout_light et_had_animation\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p><em>July 6, 2<\/em><em>022<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/eap-csf.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/EaP-CSF-SC-statement-on-the-sentencing-of-Uladzimir-Matskevich.pdf\">calls<\/a><\/strong> on the Belarusian authorities to release Uladzimir Matskevich immediately, together with all unlawfully detained civil society activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_1 et_pb_with_background et_section_regular\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_1\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et_pb_column_1 et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_3 et_pb_text_align_justified et_pb_bg_layout_light et_had_animation\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p>On 23 June 2022, Uladzimir Matskevich, philosopher and civil society leader, was sentenced to 5 years of reinforced regime imprisonment by the Minsk Regional Court in a politically motivated trial. Mr. Matskevich was detained on 4 August 2021 and declared a political prisoner on 6 August 2021. This unjust and politically motivated imprisonment and sentencing is yet another move by the Belarusian authorities to intensify human rights abuses, and political persecutions and to suffocate dissent and freedom of speech. This extremely concerning situation calls for an urgent, structured, and sustained response from all stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>Uladzimir Matskevich has been for years one of the most prominent voices in Belarusian civil society. Through his books, lectures, articles, and actions, he has contributed to the development of Belarusian civil society and shaped Belarusian philosophical and humanitarian thought. In the early stages of the Eastern Partnership policy, Mr. Matskevich founded the EaP CSF Belarusian National Platform and participated in the creation of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. He is the author of the formula \u201cThink Belarus\u201d, the founder of the Agency of Humanitarian technologies, the first Head of the Council of the international consortium \u201cEuroBelarus\u201d and the founder of the \u201cFlying University\u201d (\u041b\u044f\u0442\u0443\u0447\u044b \u045e\u043d\u0456\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0441\u0456\u0442\u044d\u0442).<\/p>\n<p>Without any end in sight to the spiral of violence Belarusian authorities are caught in, there will only be further destruction. The Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/eap-csf.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/EaP-CSF-SC-statement-on-the-sentencing-of-Uladzimir-Matskevich.pdf\">calls<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on:<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Belarusian authorities<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To release\u00a0<strong>Uladzimir Matskevich\u00a0<\/strong>immediately<strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>together with all unlawfully detained civil society activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and students; after release, Mr Matskevich and all others should be protected from torture, any inhuman or degrading treatment, and should have unconditional access to justice, legal and medical assistance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>T<\/strong><strong>he European Union and Member states:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>to pay continued, structured, public and political attention to the sentence and detention of Uladzimir Matskevich and the situation of thousands of political prisoners in Belarus;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>to keep following the situation of repressed Belarusian journalists, activists, and civil society representatives who are facing increasing pressure and hostilities at the hands of the regime;<\/li>\n<li>to continue supporting Belarusian free media and exiled civil society, so that they can continue to exercise their watchdog function to the extent that it remains possible, and to shed light on Mr Matskevich\u2019s case and others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To the press, human rights activists, and civil society:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To continue raising the issue of Uladzimir Matskevich\u2019s imprisonment. A spotlight should be kept on his case and the conditions of his internment must not be forgotten.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 6, 2022 The Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum\u00a0calls on the Belarusian authorities to release Uladzimir Matskevich immediately, together with all unlawfully detained civil society activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and students. On 23 June 2022, Uladzimir Matskevich, philosopher and civil society leader, was sentenced to 5 years of reinforced regime [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,739],"tags":[981,983,985,987,989],"class_list":{"0":"post-5781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-statements___en","9":"tag-eap-csf-belarusian-national-platform___en","10":"tag-eurobelarus___en","11":"tag-flying-university___en","12":"tag-think-belarus___en","13":"tag-uladzimir-matskevich___en"},"lang":"en","translations":{"en":5781,"hy":3030},"amp_enabled":true,"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5781"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5785,"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5781\/revisions\/5785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freecitizen.am\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}