{"id":500730,"date":"2025-12-07T22:31:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T19:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=500730"},"modified":"2025-12-08T12:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:20:18","slug":"this-award-belongs-to-all-belarusians-who-continue-to-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/this-award-belongs-to-all-belarusians-who-continue-to-fight","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis Award Belongs to All Belarusians Who Continue to Fight\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya<\/b> Received the Bonn International Prize for Democracy and the Rule of Law<\/p>\n

The ceremony for the Bonn International Prize for Democracy and the Rule of Law took place on 7 December in Bonn, Germany. In 2024, the award went to the leader of the Belarusian democratic forces Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. The prize is awarded for contributions to the protection of democracy, the principle of separation of powers, and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

The award has been presented annually since 2007 to individuals and organisations that demonstrate courage in defending human rights, legality, and democratic values. Previous laureates include former Czech President Vaclav Havel<\/b> (2009) and the international organisation Reporters Without Borders (2014).<\/p>\n

Speaking at the ceremony, Tsikhanouskaya stressed that she considers the award a recognition of the efforts of all Belarusians who continue to fight for freedom, justice, and peace. She also called on participants to support political prisoners in Belarus and Ukraine:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to the organisers of the Bonn International Prize for Democracy for their decision to give it to Belarusians. It is not for me \u2014 but for all those who fight for freedom, including our political prisoners, such as Maria Kalesnikava<\/b> or Ales Bialiatski<\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n

We Belarusians are deeply grateful to the German people for their solidarity and support \u2014 not only for a free Belarus but also for Ukraine.<\/i><\/p>\n

Today I want to ask you to support Belarus, our political prisoners. But also \u2014 to support Ukraine. Because today Ukraine is fighting for all of Europe. The destinies of our countries are intertwined. If Ukraine is strong and Russia weak, this will open a window of opportunity for Belarus as well.<\/i><\/p>\n

Dictators may appear invincible \u2014 until suddenly they collapse. As happened with the Berlin Wall, with the Soviet Union, or recently with Syria. We do not know when and how this will happen, but it will happen. And we must be ready.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

After the award was presented, a panel discussion took place. It featured Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Natael Limi\u0144ski<\/b>, Minister for Federal, European and International Affairs of North Rhine\u2013Westphalia. The participants discussed the situation in Belarus, the priorities of the democratic forces, and Germany\u2019s opportunities to support Belarusian society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Received the Bonn International Prize for Democracy and the Rule of Law The ceremony for the Bonn International Prize for Democracy and the Rule of Law took place on 7 December in Bonn, Germany. In 2024, the award went to the leader of the Belarusian democratic forces Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. The prize is awarded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6936985a1f346.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"\u201cThis Award Belongs to All Belarusians Who Continue to Fight\u201d"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}