On 21st March, the Department of Belarusian Studies, the University of Warsaw, organised a meeting “Ales Bialatski – Belarusian Freedom Fighter and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate”. The meeting was attended by Bialatski’s wife, Natalia Pinczuk.

“Around the world universities are temples of freedom, tolerance and inclusiveness, where a human being comes first. The University of Warsaw is an open European university. Belarus and its people are close to us and can count on our support,” Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, the UW Rector, said.

The meeting was organised at the University of Warsaw and centred around the figure of Ales Bialatski, a Belarusian activist, who has been recently sentenced to ten years in a high-security penal colony. Bialatski is a human rights defender, the Chairman of the Viasna Human Rights Centre and the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Natalia Pinczuk, the wife of the oppositionist, expressed gratitude to the authorities and the community of the University of Warsaw for the organisation of the meeting. “There was once a noble phrase in the history of our relationship, ‘For your freedom and ours!’, which is up to date again. Ales and his friends were held in court in an iron cage and handcuffs, because people who fight for freedom are most dangerous to those who hold power by force in Belarus,” Pinczuk emphasised.

The meeting included reading out some excerpts from Ales Bialatski’s publications translated into Polish. It was also accompanied by a performance of Belarusian musicians. Among the invited guests were Belarusian political and social activists.

The event “Ales Bialatski – Belarusian Freedom Fighter and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate” was held on 21st March in the building of the UW’s Faculty of Modern Languages and Faculty of Applied Linguistics under the auspices of Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, the Rector of the University of Warsaw. It was conducted by Prof. Radosław Kaleta, the Director of the Department of Belarusian Studies.