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September 21, 2021

Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners: Marfa Rabkova

Marfa Rabkova is a human rights defender and a coordination of the volunteer service at the Human Rights Centre Viasna. She took part in the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”, which saw over 1,500 observers register for election monitoring during the 2020 presidential election. Rabkova was detained on 17 September 2020.

September 17, 2021

Belarus: International human rights groups demand release of Viasna members on first anniversary of crackdown

On the first anniversary of the unprecedented crackdown on the Human Rights Center Viasna (“Viasna”) in Belarus, Human Rights House Foundation joins 22 international and Belarusian human rights organizations in launching a campaign to demand the release of seven detained Viasna members, as well as highlighting the plight of hundreds of others, who have been prosecuted and jailed solely for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

September 16, 2021

America must lead the international response to Russia’s human rights crisis

“Human rights is going to always be on the table, I told [President Putin]. It’s not about just going after Russia when they violate human rights. It’s about who we are. How could I be the President of the United States of America and not speak out against the violation of human rights?”

September 14, 2021

Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners: Maxim Znak

Maxim Znak is a lawyer who has been in detention since 18 September 2020. Shortly after his detention, he told his lawyer: “Normal life of society is impossible without law, just as human life is impossible without food”.

September 2, 2021

Protecting Defenders

What Protection providers, States, and Donors can do: recommendations from HRDs across Eastern Europe, South Caucasus, and Central Asia

August 31, 2021

UN must immediately and fully resource the Belarus investigative mechanism

We, the undersigned members of the network of Human Rights Houses, call on United Nations (UN) member states to ensure that the Human Rights Council’s investigative mechanism on Belarus has all necessary resources to undertake its mandate.

August 30, 2021

Statement on the liquidation of the Belarusian Association of Journalists

Human Rights House Foundation is outraged by the liquidation of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) and stands in solidarity with BAJ and the rest of Belarusian civil society currently under siege. We call on the international community to use all available tools to support Belarusian civil society and human rights defenders, including individual sanctions against all those responsible for human rights violations in the country.

August 25, 2021

House-to-House 2021: Call for applications

Human Rights House Foundation announces a call for applications to House-to-House Project Fund 2021. HRHF welcomes all Human Rights Houses, their member organisations as well as organisations and actors from outside of the network to apply for funding.

August 23, 2021

Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners: Volha Takarchuk

Volha Takarchuk runs a political vlog with almost 37,000 subscribers. She was detained several times after the August 2020 election, but on the morning of 19 May her apartment was searched, some of her belongings were seized, and she was detained. She has remained in prison since then.

August 17, 2021

Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners: Aliaksandr Vasilevich

Aliaksandr Vasilevich is a businessman, owner of the Vondel/Hepta advertising agency and the “Ў” Gallery, which was formerly one of the main cultural centres in Belarus. He is also the co-founder of the online media Kyky.org and TheVillage Belarus. He was detained on 28 August 2020 by representatives of the Financial Investigation Department of the State Control Committee.

August 12, 2021

2021 Free Media Awards recognise Belarusian Independent Media

Five Belarusian journalists and media institutions have been awarded Fritt Ord’s Free Media Awards for 2021. The awards recognise the courageous and crucial work of independent Belarusian media amidst the on-going unprecedented crackdown.

August 10, 2021

Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners: Maryia Kalesnikava

In September 2020, the prominent Belarusian opposition figure Maryia Kalesnikava was abducted from Minsk and taken to the border where security forces tried to expel her from the country; she ripped up her passport in defiance. In the days that followed she was charged with incitement to undermine national security and placed in pre-trial detention. The letter that follows was written by Maryia Kalesnikava to her father on 16 July 2021, the day the Supreme Court rejected her complaint regarding the extension of her detention until 1 August.