Charter 97 (Belarusian: Хартыя'97; Russian: Хартия'97) is a declaration calling for democracy in Belarus and a pro-human rights news site taking its inspiration from the declaration. The document – the title of which deliberately echoes the Czechoslovak human rights declaration Charter 77 20 years earlier – was created on the anniversary of a referendum held in 1996, and which, in the words of the organisation of the same name, declares: Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet acted as the group's spokesman at the declaration's public launch.