On January 18, 2023, Olga Karach spoke online to members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Belarus, currently chaired by the Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Belarus, Mr Juozas Olekas MEP from Lithuania. The delegation itself met offline in Strasbourg.

The main focus of both the meeting and discussions was on the repression and persecution of independent trade unions and violations of workers’ rights of Belarusians by the Lukashenko regime.

Olga Karach made a report on violations of the rights of believers and priests in Belarus. She separately emphasized that today the number one task for the entire Belarusian civil society is to prevent the Belarusian army from participating in the war on Putin’s side, and therefore the issue of providing support for believers, and especially for conscientious objectors for religious reasons, as well as the problem of repressions against believers and priests should also become a priority and a special focus for Europe.

Olga Karach asked MEPs to adopt a resolution on violations of the rights of priests and believers in Belarus and to consider the situation related to Belarusian conscientious objectors at the next meeting of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Belarus.

A video of her speech can be seen here:

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