Open Appeal from Nobel Laureates to U.S. President Donald Trump and World Leaders Calling for the Release of Political Prisoners in Belarus

We, the undersigned Nobel laureates, once again address the global community with an urgent call to immediately secure the release of all political prisoners in Belarus.
Since 2020, mass repression against citizens, political activists, students, journalists, and human rights defenders has continued in Belarus. Europe has not faced a humanitarian catastrophe of such scale caused by political repression since the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. More than 300,000 people have been forced to leave the country, and thousands have become victims of torture and ill-treatment.
Currently, over 1,400 political prisoners are held in Belarusian prisons, including presidential candidates, teachers, doctors, workers, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. Many have ended up behind bars for their comments on social media or for subscribing to channels on X, YouTube, and Telegram, highlighting the absurdity of the situation.
In detention, there are individuals who are seriously ill and elderly, held in inhumane conditions. Opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich has been in solitary confinement for nearly five years, confined to a cell just one by three meters in size. Unfortunately, several political prisoners have died in prison, including the well-known artist Ales Pushkin.
We call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately cease the repression and release all political prisoners. No one should lose their freedom for their expression of opinion. Societal disagreements must be resolved through dialogue and respect for human rights, not through violence and repression.
We urge U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of the European Union to take urgent and comprehensive measures to secure the release of all political prisoners in Belarus. The international community cannot remain indifferent when thousands of innocent people are suffering from political repression.
We express our gratitude to the government of Poland, diplomats, human rights organizations, and participants in the civil initiative "Ultimatum" for their active efforts aimed at securing the release of political prisoners in Belarus.
We call on world leaders, public figures, and all people of conscience to support the campaign for the release of prisoners of conscience in Belarus. The fates of thousands of people depend on the decisive and coordinated actions of the international community.
February 17, 2025

Signatures:

Nobel Prize in Literature
Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate (2015), Belarus. Awarded for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.
Herta Müller, Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate (2009), Germany. Awarded for her work that, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.

Nobel Peace Prize
Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize (1996), President of Timor-Leste. Awarded for his work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor.
Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1997), USA. Awarded for her work to ban and clear anti-personnel landmines.
Dmitry Muratov, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2021), Russia. Awarded for efforts to safeguard freedom of expression under increasingly adverse conditions.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2022), Ukraine. Awarded for efforts to document war crimes, human rights abuses, and abuse of power.

Nobel Prize in Physics
Sheldon Lee Glashow, Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate (1979), USA. Awarded for contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles.
Jerome Isaac Friedman, Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate (1990), USA. Awarded for pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons.
Gerard 't Hooft, Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate (1999), Netherlands. Awarded for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions.
Alain Aspect, Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate (2022), France. Awarded for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (1981), USA. Awarded for theories concerning the course of chemical reactions.
John Polanyi, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (1986), Canada. Awarded for contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.
Yuan T. Lee, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (1986), Taiwan. Awarded for contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.
Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (1987), France. Awarded for the development of molecules with highly selective structure-specific interactions.
Johann Deisenhofer, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (1988), Germany / USA. Awarded for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center.
Elias J. Corey, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (1990), USA. Awarded for the development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis.
Jules Hoffmann, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (2011), France. Awarded for discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity.
Barry J. Marshall, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (2005), Australia. Awarded for the discovery of Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.
Martin Chalfie, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (2008), USA. Awarded for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP).
Sir David William MacMillan, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate (2021), UK. Awarded for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.


Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Torsten Wiesel, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (1981), Sweden. Awarded for discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system.
Harold Varmus, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (1989), USA. Awarded for the discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes.
Sir Richard J. Roberts, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (1993), UK. Awarded for the discovery of split genes.
Eric Wieschaus, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (1995), USA. Awarded for discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development.
Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (2001), UK. Awarded for discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle.
Jack W. Szostak, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (2009), USA. Awarded for discoveries of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
Randy Schekman, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (2013), USA. Awarded for discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic.
Gregg L. Semenza, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (2019), USA. Awarded for discoveries on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.
Harvey J. Alter, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (2020), USA. Awarded for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.
Charles M. Rice, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (2020), USA. Awarded for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.
Drew Weissman, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureate (2023), USA. Awarded for discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications enabling the development of effective mRNA vaccines.


Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
Sir Christopher Pissarides, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Laureate (2010), UK / Cyprus. Awarded for analysis of markets with search frictions.
Paul Milgrom, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Laureate (2020), USA. Awarded for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.


According to the latest data, the appeal was signed by 33 Nobel Prize winners. The list will be updated.

Зварот лаурэатаў Нобелеўскай прэміі да прэзідэнта ЗША Дональда Трампа і сусветных лідараў з заклікам да вызвалення палітычных зняволеных у Беларусі

Открытое обращение лауреатов Нобелевской премии к президенту США Дональду Трампу и мировым лидерам с призывом освободить политических заключенных в Беларуси