Canada announced on Monday that it will impose further sanctions on 21 Belarus officers beneath the Particular Financial Measures (Belarus) Laws. These sanctions are available response to the continuing human rights violations occurring in Belarus for the reason that 2020 presidential election.
In keeping with World Affairs Canada’s assertion, the sanctions function a response to the systematic violations perpetrated by the Lukashenko regime, together with the prosecution of Belarusian residents who protested in opposition to the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
The sanctions primarily goal present and former high-ranking authorities officers, together with members of the safety forces, public prosecutors, judiciary members and directors of penal and academic establishments. These people have been implicated in suppressing the precise of Belarusians to interact in peaceable protests. Canada alleges their involvement or complicity in arbitrary arrests, detentions, brutality, intimidation and the extreme use of power in opposition to protesters who contested the fraudulent elections. Moreover, the accused officers have been allegedly related to the ill-treatment of people who had been falsely tried, sentenced and imprisoned following the protests.
Canada applied the sanctions pursuant to the Special Economic Measures Act, which grants the federal government the authority to implement financial measures in opposition to particular people when gross and systematic human rights violations have transpired in a overseas state.
Underneath the Particular Financial Measures Laws, Canada imposed a prohibition on dealings (successfully an asset freeze). This prohibition restricts people in Canada and Canadians overseas from partaking in any exercise associated to the property of the listed individuals, in addition to offering monetary or associated companies to them. Moreover, the listed people are deemed inadmissible to Canada beneath the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Canada introduced the sanctions earlier than Belarusian opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya visited Ottawa on Tuesday. The Belarusian authorities tried Tsikhanouskaya, an advocate for democracy, in absentia in 2023 and sentenced him to fifteen years.
Throughout Tsikhanouskaya’s meeting with Mélanie Joly, Minister of Overseas Affairs of Canada, they agreed to conduct bilateral consultations on human rights, democracy and methods to make sure accountability for the Lukashenko regime and put an finish to the continuing human rights violations in Belarus for the reason that 2020 presidential election.
In March, the UN Human Rights Council revealed a report on the human rights scenario in Belarus throughout and after the nation’s 2020 presidential election. The report presents proof regarding a variety of points, similar to arbitrary denial of the precise to life, enforced disappearances, torture, and discrimination based mostly on political views.
