The Belarusian democracy movement seeks to challenge Alexander Lukashenko's regime.
Contents
Background
Alexander Lukashenko has ruled the country in an authoritarian fashion since 1994. The United Nations Human Rights Council noted that Belarusian political system is "incompatible with the concept of human rights".
Charter 97
Charter 97 is a declaration calling for democracy in Belarus and a human rights group taking its inspiration from the declaration. The document – whose title deliberately echoes the Czechoslovak human rights declaration Charter 77 twenty years earlier – was created on the anniversary of a referendum held in 1996, and which, in the words of the organisation of the same name, declares: "devotion to the principles of independence, freedom and democracy, respect to the human rights, solidarity with everybody, who stands for elimination of dictatorial regime and restoration of democracy in Belarus."
Jeans Revolution
The Jeans Revolution was a term used by the democratic opposition in Belarus and their supporters to describe their effort and aspirations as regarding democratic changes in Belarus at the presidential elections of 2006.
2010 presidential election
After the Belarusian presidential election, 2010, up to 40,000 people protested against Lukashenko. Up to 700 opposition activists, including 7 presidential candidates, were arrested in the post-election crackdown.
Several websites of the opposition and opposition candidates were also blocked or hacked. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google talk, many email services and LiveJournal were also blocked. The headquarters of Charter97, an opposition group and website, was stormed by Lukashenko's security forces and all its staff was arrested.
According to the Independent, Lukashenko's security forces went after his opponents "with a ferocity that would not have looked out of place in Soviet times".
2011 protests
A series of protests influenced by the Arab Spring took place in 2011. As a result of these protests, on 29 July, the government banned assemblies and gatherings.
2012 protests
On 25 March 2012, several thousand people participated in an anti-government rally in Belarus on the anniversary of Belarus's short-lived independence from Russia in 1918. Belarusian state television reported that there were 200 protesters in Minsk.