On 16 December 2010, the Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe) will organise the annual pan-European "Free Belarus” Action for the sixth time, after last action took place simultaneously in no less than 125 cities all over the world.
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Who: JEF-Europe (Young European Federalists) and partners.
What: Street action to gag statues with banners reading: "Give a Voice to Democracy – Free Belarus!”
Where: Simultaneously in cities across Europe and the world.
When: 16 December 2010. This year, JEF is organising the action right before the Belarusian presidential elections of 19 December, already heavily criticised for being unfair and unfree.
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Background:
For the sixth time, the Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe) are calling on Europe and the world to stop turning a blind eye to the dictatorship on the EU’s doorstep, in Belarus. As in the previous years, JEF members and other human rights activists from all over the world will on the night of 16 December be gagging statues in their cities, symbolically preventing them from speaking and making them "Belarusian" for a night – unable to speak out against the oppressive regime which allows death penalty and infinite re-elections of its authoritarian president, but not establishing NGOs, media freedom, or freedom of speech.

"We gag statues because statues celebrate people and their ideas. We know of them because they were able to speak out. Imagine a world where that is impossible. That is Belarus today," explains Daniela Vidaicu, action coordinator.

The first "Free Belarus" action took place in March 2006, in protest of the controversial third re-election of Alexander Lukashenko as Belarusian president. This year, the action will take place on 16 December instead – three days before the new presidential elections, already deemed unfair and unfree by internal and foreign observers.

"When people in 125 cities across the globe do the same thing at the same time in protest of the regime in Belarus, that is a strong message," says Philippe Adriaenssens, President of JEF-Europe. "The EU needs to take a firm stance against the human rights violations, civil liberties issues and a lack of transparency in the supposedly democratic process, and demand a serious improvement. That is what we mean by giving a voice to democracy in Belarus."
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Get involved:

• Register for the action, please click here

• Action Pack, please click here

• Follow the action on Twitter: @freebelarusjef

• Join the Facebook group, please click here

• Pictures of the last Free Belarus Action, please click here

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Contact Details:
Philippe Adriaenssens, JEF Europe President, president(at)jef.eu, +32 472 33 41 27
Daniela Vidaicu, JEF-Europe Action Co-ordinator, daniela.vidaicu(at)jef.eu, +373 68 807 159

Julia Mikic, JEF-Europe Press Responsible, julia.mikic(at)jef.eu, +385 91 524 54 21