Violence against women and girls is a grave human rights violation, resulting in immediate and long-term physical, sexual, and mental consequences which can have highly damaging and even devastating effect on their health, reproduction capacity and life itself.
Violence against women is a problem which shouldn’t be tolerated by any group of people or any gender, therefore BWF is calling upon men to stand up and take the action with full responsibility in preventing and stopping any kind of violence against women.
However, in the current period after August 9, 2020, the Lukashenko’s regime has shifted all the severity of its repressive apparatus to the suppression of the peaceful protests where thousands of women have been taking part for many months now. Women have faced violence, rape and imprisonment, various threats to their lifes, livelihood and children. Many have been forced to flee the country due to real dangers to life of their families and children.
BWF acknowledges the courage of Belarusian women and their readiness to take on the most dangerous responsibilities, while remaining in a completely vulnerable position in the face of current authority.
BWF has started to gather the stories of the women who had faced the brutality of the regime. We are doing textual, audio and video testimonies in order to share the truth about the Lukashenko’s terror.
BWF call on international society to demand the release of all illegally detained women - political prisoners in Belarus. We aim to involve international women’s organizations and human rights’ movements to stand for the Belarus women being currently deprived of their freedom and held as political prisoners in Belarus, their only guilt being the wish to freely express their opinion and demand free and fair elections in Belarus.