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Ihnat Sidorchyk is a film director, actor and poet. He was detained on 10 August 2020 and initially charged with “organisation of mass riots” for having called on friends to meet in central Minsk on 9 August (the day of the presidential election) via a Telegram chat. In February 2021, Ihnat was sentenced to three years of restricted freedom in an open penitentiary (so-called “khimiya”), finding him guilty of “group actions that grossly violate public order”. Ihnat was released to await an appeal hearing, but he was re-arrested in June 2021 to begin serving his sentence.

Human Rights House Foundation and 17 other international and Belarusian organizations call on Belarusian authorities to immediately annul the outrageous verdict and drop all charges against Leanid Sudalenka and Tatsiana Lasitsa, sentenced today to 3 and 2.5 years in prison, as well as five other members of Viasna who are currently in jail on politically motivated charges.

The environment for human rights defenders and organisations in Russia is increasingly dire. In this report, Human Rights House Foundation outlines the impact of the sweeping crackdown and use of increasingly restrictive and repressive legislation in Russia on the work of Russian civil society domestically and internationally, providing recommendations to the international community and the Russian authorities.

Over en rekke år har vi sett at gapet mellom internasjonale standarder og nasjonal etterlevelse av menneskerettigheter blir større. Les HRHFs anbefalinger til Utenriks- og forsvarskomiteen nedenfor.

Katsyaryna Andreeva is a journalist for the independent media outlet Belsat, who has been detained since November 2020. In the months before her arrest, she had been covering the nationwide protests that surrounded the August presidential election.

Danila Hancharou is a lighting designer who had previously been employed at the New Drama Theater in Minsk. On 15 March, his apartment was searched, and he was detained for having held a one-person picket. Having been sentenced to 15 days in prison, he was due to be released on 30 March. But on 26 March, he was taken for interrogation and charged with the “organisation and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order.” He was subsequently transferred to a pre-trial detention centre. On 9 July 2021, he was put on trial and sentenced to two years in prison. He remains imprisoned in “correctional facility” #17 (IK-17) in Shklow in the Mogliev region of Belarus.

Ahead of the 23rd summit between the European Union and Ukraine, Human Rights House Foundation, with its partners Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv and Human Rights House Crimea urge the EU to raise with Ukraine issues concerning freedom of expression, assembly, association and human rights defenders.

Ksenia Syramalot is a 21-year-old student at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Belarusian State University. She was the spokesperson for the Belarusian Students’ Association and a volunteer at the Human Rights Center “Viasna”. On 23 November 2020, she was detained for “organising or participating in group actions that gravely breach public order” under Art. 342 part 1 of the Criminal Code. Her apartment was searched, and she was held in the KGB pre-trial prison. On 16 July 2021, she was sentenced to two years and six months in prison in a case known as “the student case”, which involved 12 defendants.

Respekten for og nasjonal etterlevelse av menneskerettighetene og de internasjonale mekanismene som skal ivareta dem er blitt svekket de siste ti-årene. Les HRHFs anbefalinger til Norges nye regjeringsplattform.

On 5 October 2021, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at the 48th session of the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in occupied Crimea and mainland Ukraine

When US President Joe Biden stood in the East Room of the White House on September 15 flanked by television screens with the images of Australian Prime Minister Morrison and British Prime Minister Johnson, a new geopolitical trend came into stark relief for European policymakers. As many analysts subsequently noted, the announcement of the AUKUS trilateral security pact between the US, UK, and Australia underscored the fragility of European security, the need for greater emphasis on building strategic autonomy, and the fact that a strengthened European Union policy towards Russia, its biggest strategic competitor, is vital. Human rights must now play a central role in the design and implementation of an updated EU-Russia Strategic Policy.

Watch the full recording of the webinar “Censoring Civil Society: The impact of restrictive civil society legislation on engagement with the UN”, hosted on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Human Rights Council on 30 September 2021.