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On Saturday 10 December, this year’s Nobel Peace laureates received their awards at a ceremony in Oslo’s town hall. Human Rights House Foundation once again offers its sincerest congratulations to these brave human rights defenders: Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine), Memorial (Russia) and Viasna’s Ales Bialiatski (Belarus).

Over the course of several months in 2022, young Armenians explored the importance of human rights in Armenia’s constitution and other issues in society through 30 short films produced as part of a project organised by “Open Platform for Art” NGO and PEN Armenia.

Human Rights House Yerevan is close to completing the renovation of its premises – the home of Armenia’s human rights defenders – and you can help by donating today.

Dzmitry Kubarau is UI/UX designer from Minsk. Known as ‘Dima’ to his friends, he likes tattoos, fashion, and chess. Dzmitry was accused of “calling people to actively participate in mass riots, organising them himself and participating in them” from 9 to 12 August 2020. He was detained on 11 August 2020 and taken to the KGB pre-trial detention centre. That same night, he signed a confession while in the hands of the KGB. At trial, Dzmitry pleaded not guilty and reported the torture that led to his ‘confession.’ On 24 March 2021 he was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony under part 1 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code (“Organisation of riots”).

On 15 November 2023, Human Rights House Foundation hosted a conversation between Polish civil society representatives reflecting on the recommendations given by delegations immediately following the conclusion of Poland’s Universal Periodic Review process at the United Nations in Geneva. More than 240 recommendations were made by around 80 delegations on the human rights situation in Poland over the last five years.

At the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) continued its work alongside the network of Human Rights Houses & other civil society partners in calling on the Council to address human rights challenges and support human rights defenders across Eastern Europe and beyond.

On 8 November 2022, Human Rights House Foundation co-organised a side event at UNGA77 focused on the human rights situation in occupied Crimea following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Following the launch of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, civic activist Artem Kostyuchenko and his family were forced to flee the Kherson region and relocate to Lviv. From there he continues his work and hopes to soon return to his home. This is article was written by Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv.

Artsiom Mitsuk was part of a Telegram group chat which included a number of pseudonymous members. On 29 September, some of the members agreed to meet in person. Artsiom arrived late and saw a number of representatives of law enforcement agencies but as he was sure he had not broken any laws, he checked in with the group chat to find out what was happening. However, on the group chat, Artsiom noticed a representative of state authorities was sending messages to the other users. Soon after that Artsiom was arrested.

For three days in September, representatives of the network of Human Rights Houses met in Vilnius, Lithuania for House Treff 2022. This event marked the first time that the Houses were able to reconnect in-person following several years of unprecedented world events. Together, they discussed how the network can address the impact of these world events and meet common challenges together.

On 24 October 2022, Human Rights House Foundation co-organised a side event ahead of the start of the First Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform. The event focused on the deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Crimea following the launch of renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine in February 2022.

On 10 October 2022, Human Rights House Foundation joined over 20 international civil society organisations in a joint statement calling on member states of the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee to show commitment to ensuring civil society participation at the UN without fear of intimidation and reprisals.