Human Rights Survival Guide – Details, episodes & analysis

One moment you stand up for your people's right to democracy and freedom, the next you are sentenced to 15 days of detention. Unimaginable? Not in Belarus.

This is the story of a woman who lived through that experience twice, and wrote a survival guide to Belarusian prison. In this third episode, you'll hear advice on how to stay relatively sane during detention.

The third episode covers 15 days of detention: psychological hygiene, organisation of everyday life, rituals and pastimes, and liberation.

If you want to learn more about the Belarusian struggle for freedom, you might find Aliaksei Paluyan's 2021 documentary 'Courage' and Krzysztof Lukaszewicz's 2013 drama 'Viva Belarus' interesting.

Find out how you can support and express solidarity:

Write a letter to a political prisoner: https://spring96.org/en/news/101367DissidentBY: https://dissidentby.com/en, a non-profit initiative supporting political prisoners.BY_help: https://www.belarus97.pro/eng, a civic campaign supporting dissidents and their families.Politvyazynka: https://m.facebook.com/100085144390317/ https://instagram.com/politvyazynka?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=, an activist's project highlighting female political prisoners.

Learn more about the Akrestsina pre-trial detention centre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okrestina

To not miss out on the other survival guide chapters, subscribe to our podcast and automatically get the next episodes in your feed.

One moment you’re standing up for freedom and democracy, the next you’re sentenced to 15 days’ detention. Unimaginable? Not in Belarus.

This is the story of a woman who lived through that experience twice and transformed it into a guide to surviving Belarusian prison.

This is the second episode of the mini-series, covering arrest and trial.

If you want to learn more about Belarus’ struggle for freedom, you may enjoy Aliaksei Paluyan's 2021 documentary 'Courage' and Krzysztof Lukaszewicz's 2013 drama 'Viva Belarus'.

Also, read the today's statement by international and Belarusian rights groups calling to end the ill-treatment of Maria Kalesnikava and all the other political prisoners: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/12/belarus-stop-ill-treatment-opposition-politician

Want to support the cause and express your solidarity? Here are some ways you can do that:

• Write a letter to a political prisoner: https://spring96.org/en/news/101367

• DissidentBY: https://dissidentby.com/en, a non-profit initiative supporting political prisoners.

• BY_help: https://www.belarus97.pro/eng, a civic campaign supporting dissidents and their families.

• Politvyazynka: https://m.facebook.com/100085144390317/ and https://www.instagram.com/politvyazynka/, an activist project highlighting female political prisoners.

Learn more about the Akrestsina pre-trial detention centre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okrestina

Belarusians singing ‘Peremen’ by Kino, which became the anthem of the democratic opposition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMdrQvQRFzM

To avoid missing out on the remaining survival guide chapters, subscribe to our podcast and automatically have new episodes appear in your feed.

In the third episode of our accountability series Richard J Rodgers, International Lawyer and Partner at Global Diligence LLP and Noa Roque, Legal Officer at IPHR discuss the relationships between human rights and environment through the lens of environmental justice, climate justice and climate litigation. 

They explore how can the law be used to enhance the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, how effective current instruments are in practice and what role does civil society play in environmental and climate justice.

Please check out previous two episodes in the accountability series: 

Universal jurisdiction: myths and realities https://anchor.fm/human-rights-survival-guide/episodes/Universal-jurisdiction-myths-and-realities-enltn3

Targeted sanctions: Everything you wanted to know about GMA but were afraid to ask https://anchor.fm/human-rights-survival-guide/episodes/Targeted-sanctions-Everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-GMA-but-were-afraid-to-ask-eltlb3   

What is universal jurisdiction (UJ) and why it is increasingly discussed in human rights circles and among international stakeholders recently? 

What is hidden behind the overhyped UJ concept, how did it emerge, what's the scope of it and how could it evolve in the years to come?

In the second episode of our "accountability series"  Alexandre Prezanti, International Lawyer and Partner at Global Diligence LLP and Simon Papuashvili, Programme Director at IPHR discuss these questions and spice them up with examples, which will motivate you to learn more and who knows, maybe even litigate a UJ case.  

• Who was Sergey Magnitsky and why are sanctions named after him?
• How are Magnitsky sanctions different from other sanctions?
• What role do civil society play vis-à-vis sanctions?

In this podcast episode we answer these and other equally informative and compelling questions together with Melissa Hooper - Director of Foreign Policy and Accountability at the NGO Human Rights First and international expert in the field of sanctions.

This is the first podcast in our "accountability series", which will also include discussions on concepts of universal jurisdiction and climate justice.

In this episode we will explore the topic of healthcare. Thanks to infamous Covid-19 crisis, shortcomings in healthcare systems around the world are more visible than ever. Yet, in some countries, the poor state of the healthcare system is part of a much deeper and long-standing problem. And people in Tajikistan know it firsthand. One of the poorest countries in Asia, with the 9.5 million population and only $ 55 per capita investment in the healthcare sector – is in our focus today.

Our guest is Sebastien Peyrouse, Research Professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Central Asia Program at George Washington University.

In this episode we are going to focus on the situation with human rights in the United States and possible implications recent events may have for the human rights community worldwide. We will also explore some parallels and linkages between what is currently going on in the US and violations that we observe in the Former Soviet Union region.

Our guest is Kate Watters, Executive Director at Crude Accountability, an environmental and human rights nonprofit organization based in the United States.

Тема настоящего выпуска - расширение понятия пропаганды терроризма в российской риторике и правоприменительной практике. 

Вместе с Александром Верховским, Директором Информационно-Аналитического Центра СОВА в Москве, будем разбираться: 

1. Все ли в порядке с определением терроризма в российском законодательстве? 

2. Как с этим связано резонансное дело Светланы Прокопьевой?

3. Как нынче применяется статья УК о пропаганде/оправдании терроризма?

4. Чего следует ожидать в будущем?

As IPHR continues to follow the events happening in Belarus, we spoke to Volga Siakhovich, legal expert for the Belarusian Association of Journalists. This time special focus has been put on the role of women in opposition and persecutions of journalists and bloggers during the protests. 

IPHR continues to cover the events happening in Belarus.

In this interview we spoke with Belarusian journalist Yan Avseyushkin.