This petition calls on the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Dominic Raabe, to apply his powers, under The Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 (which came in to force on 6th July 2020), to apply asset freezes and travel bans on those in Belarus currently responsible for the human rights abuses in relation to the current Belarus Presidential election held on 9th August 2020.

The Belarusian authorities must end their crackdown on political opposition, activists and critics, and fully respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of everyone in the lead up to, and after the Belarus Presidential Election on 9 August, Amnesty International in a statement on Belarus, on 29th June 2020 described the:growing crackdown on human rights in Belarus ahead of the Belarus Presidential Election. The organization has documented a wave of reprisals against political opponents, activists, critics and independent media. The Annesty International statement declared:-

“There is no safe environment for political debate in Belarus, and there is a growing crackdown on human rights in the context of the forthcoming election. The wave of activism currently taking place in Belarus is unlike anything the authorities have faced for years, and they have responded by brutally crushing peaceful protests and dissent and punishing opposition leaders,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director.

“Opposition candidates along with their supporters are smeared, targeted and incarcerated under trumped-up charges, with women particularly targeted. One opposition activist was threatened with having her children taken into state custody; another was threatened with gang rape in a police station.”

This petition requests the UK Government to apply financial and UK immigration sanctions against those individuals in Belarus responsible for the human rights abuses (as described here by Amnesty International, and ongoing in Belarus now) by urgently applying its newly made Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations to the situation in Belarus..