“Two years ago I was a housewife,” said today’s leader and voice of democratic Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in her greetings to the 50th annual general meeting of the German section of the International Society for Human Rights.

But long before the presidential elections in the summer of 2020, her husband Sergey Tsikhanousky, who had defied the dictatorial system as a presidential candidate for freedom and democracy, was arrested and later sentenced to 18 years in prison! And so she ran for the candidacy in his place.

More than 50 thousand Belarusians have been arrested since then, and more than a thousand are still behind bars.

“I won’t rest until they’re all back home. That’s what motivates me every day.”

In her speech, the now internationally recognized leader of democratic Belarus thanks the International Society for “making voices heard for 50 years in a row”.

The International Society, which has closely followed her development from “housewife” to the leader of democratic Belarus, takes its hat off to this outstanding Belarusian voice, which has long been worthy of the voice of a President of the Belarusian people.

And ISHR, too, promises that we will not rest until all political prisoners in Belarus are back home in a freely democratic Belarus! Long live Belarus! Жыве Беларусь!