The IUF welcomes the Arthur Svensson Prize being awarded to Aliaksandr Yarashuk, President of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) and a former member of the IUF Executive Committee, who is currently held in prison by the Belarusian authorities. This decision is a proper recognition of a staunch trade union leader who sacrificed his personal liberty for the sake of all workers’ rights defenders on the planet.
Aliaksandr Yarashuk is a long-time leader of this democratic trade union movement. Since 2002 he has been leading the BKDP. In the subsequent period of harsh repression against the democratic movement, the leadership of the BKDP defended worker activists engaged in organizing strikes and other industrial actions against the dictatorship in Belarus.
On April 19, 2022 Yarashuk was arrested and sentenced to 4 years in prison. He is the only member of the elected Governing Body of the International Labour Organization in modern history known to have been placed under arrest for carrying out his mandate for workers’ rights. The campaign for his release is aimed at maintaining respect for the ILO and its functioning, as it seeks to ensure safety and freedom of speech for those who lead the organization.
“By nominating Yarashuk for the Arthur Svensson Prize, we expressed the hope that this would draw additional attention to the fate of the fighters for democracy in Belarus and elsewhere, and contribute to the release of Aliaksandr Yarashuk and his comrades,” said IUF Acting General Secretary Kristjan Bragason.
