Belarusian Attorney Discusses Defending Prisoners

Defending political prisoners in a country without rule of law is a dangerous but important job, said attorney Maryna Kavaleuskaya at her talk called “Defending Political Prisoners in Belarus” at Harvard Law School on Wednesday.

Kavaleuskaya, a Belarusian attorney known for her defense of Andrei Sannikov, an opposition leader who ran for president in the 2010 Belarusian election, was invited to speak by

the Law School’s Human Rights Program, the Graduate Program, International Legal Studies, and the Harvard National Security and Law Association to share her experiences working in the country.

Belarus is the only country in Europe where the death penalty is still exercised.This Kavaleuskaya said makes what she characterizes as the absence of the rule of law particularly problematic.

“When there is no rule of law, no matter what you think about the death penalty, it is just murder,” Kavaleuskaya said.

Drawing on her interactions with her clients, Kavaleuskaya offered a personal account of what she called the “isolation” of political prisoners.

“The most important thing which I was doing...was serving as a connection between those people and the rest of the world for a long time,” she said.

Kavaleuskaya emphasized that she approached each of her cases as though Belarus had a rule of law—a commitment to professional standards that won her the Lawyer of Year award by a human rights organization in Belarus in 2011.

“I think she transmitted three important things,” said Luise Druke, a fellow with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. “If you do your job professionally, objectively, cool and calmly collected with the courage it takes, you can make a big contribution and you inspire confidence for those people whom you represent and also discourage people to rock your boat.”

Kavaleuskaya acknowledged that her approach put her in a “vulnerable” position, exposing her to threats by the KGB, the Belarusian security services. She was also barred from leaving the country in 2011.

Christopher P. Taggart, a lecturer at HLS who taught Kavaleuskaya last semester, did not think long before deciding the most poignant take-away of the event.

“[It was] Maryna’s courage,” he said.

—Staff writer Anja C. Nilsson can be reached at anjanilsson@college.harvard.edu. Follow her @anja_nilsson.