HRC61: HRHF and Belarusian Human Rights House urge Belarus to release political prisoners and end systemic repression

Human Rights House Foundation statement

HRC61 – Item 6 – UPR Adoptions – Belarus

18 March 2026

NGO Joint Submission

Report of the Working Group

Views of Belarus

Check against delivery.

Thank you, President.

This statement is delivered on behalf of Human Rights House Foundation and Belarusian Human Rights House.

President.

We regret that Belarus only offers lip service to the UPR process, while the human rights situation in the country remains catastrophic.

Belarus has rejected recommendations to guarantee freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. It has also rejected calls to revise the restrictive laws used to suppress those rights. Many of these recommendations do not ask Belarus to take on new commitments. They simply restate obligations the State already has under the international treaties to which it is party. By dismissing them as politicised, Belarus only highlights the gap between the obligations it has freely accepted and its own claims of protecting those rights. That gap is clear in practice, where independent civil society, media and peaceful dissent continue to face systematic repression.

Furthermore, over one thousand people remain imprisoned for political reasons. While we note recent releases of a small number of detainees, these steps remain limited and reversible, and do not alter the systemic nature of repression. Arbitrary detention continues to be used to silence dissent and punish the peaceful exercise of fundamental freedoms.

These findings are consistent with those of the UN Group of Independent Experts on Belarus who have also identified reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in the country, and for which no domestic remedy is available.

We therefore urge Belarus to:

1. Unconditionally release all political prisoners and end arbitrary detention;
2. Immediately cease the repression of civil society, repeal legislation criminalising independent civic activity, and restore the legal existence of forcibly dissolved organisations;
3. Cooperate fully and meaningfully with UN human rights mechanisms, including the Group of Independent Experts and the Special Rapporteur, and implement their recommendations without delay.

Thank you.