A working group of like-minded people, known as the cohort, has been launched officially at the initiative of Lithuania and two NGOs, the Freedom House and the Alliance of Democracies, to offer support to democracy activists and human rights defenders.
The Resisting Authoritarian Pressure cohort will aim to build resilience to authoritarian coercion, its initiators said.
“Today, we have launched a joint project with colleagues aimed at resisting authoritarian pressure. This is an initiative for practical action in very important domains,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomėnas told reporters on Thursday.
“Could not be happier that these groups and the government of Lithuania came together, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the practical solutions that they put out to the world on such an important topic,” said Robert Berschinski, a special assistant to US President Joe Biden.
The cohort will mostly focus on bringing visibility to the stories of political prisoners and increasing pressure for their release; sheltering and protecting democratic activists fleeing authoritarian regimes; countering the phenomenon of transnational repression; and building resilience to economic coercion by authoritarian regimes, Adomėnas said.
According to the joint press release of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, the Freedom House, and the Alliance of Democracies, the mobilisation of supporters of democracy and coordination of efforts to build resilience to authoritarianism have become ever more relevant in view of the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine and the strengthening of interaction between authoritarian forces.
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