Vilnius hosts conference on Lukashenko regime's violations

VILNIUS – Vilnius is on Monday hosting an international conference on violations of international law by Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko's regime.

The main goal of this conference is to discuss the violations of international law by the Lukashenko regime, including mass repressions of the Belarusian people, which are considered crimes against humanity under customary international law, according to the conference organizers, the Lithuanian Justice Ministry and the Law and Democracy Center.

The Belarusian regime is also responsible under international law for the artificially created migrant crisis, the ministry said, adding that one of the objectives of this conference is to take a comprehensive look at all possible ways to secure international justice through state responsibility and individual criminal accountability, including the establishment of a special international tribunal. 

The conference will be attended by Belarusian national leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Anais Marin, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, and Alon Margalit, a legal adviser to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Herve Ascensio and Wolfgang Benedek, rapporteurs of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, Professor Alex Whiting of Harvard Law School, other representatives of intergovernmental organizations, politicians, institutional representatives, academics, lawyers and civil society representatives.

According to the Justice Ministry, last year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on member states to support and contribute to the establishment of an accountability system for crimes committed by the Belarusian regime against the Belarusian people, to actively apply the principle of universal jurisdiction and to bring to trial Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko, who are responsible for or have contributed to the systematic use of violence and repression and crimes against humanity.