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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.

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 September, Viasna volunteer Tatsiana Lasitsa was released in Belarus after serving one year and eight months of a two-and-a-half-year sentence. While we welcome this news, we highlight that Lasitsa not have been in prison in the first place – the case against her was a reprisal for her legitimate human rights work. We repeat our call for the release of her Viasna colleagues and for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus.

In 2021, Human Rights House Foundation and the network of Human Rights Houses worked in partnership to meet human rights challenges across Europe from the Thames to the Caspian. Find out how we did this and continued our work together to advance human rights at home and abroad.

On September 6, Minsk City Court will pronounce the verdict in the politically motivated and harrowing case of human rights defenders Maria (Marfa) Rabkova and Andrey Chapiuk, in a climate of sweeping repression of civil society in Belarus. The signatory organisations call for their immediate and unconditional release, as well as for the release of all other human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in the country.

We, the undersigned Belarusian and international human rights organisations, condemn recent steps taken by the Belarusian authorities to withdraw from the First Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and remove an important avenue for redress for victims of human rights violations committed by Belarusian authorities. The move would also set a dangerous precedent for states seeking to negate their international human rights obligations to avoid unwanted scrutiny.

At the 50th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation continued its work calling on the Human Rights Council to take action on the human rights crisis in Eastern Europe characterised, in part, by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, and the increasingly dire human rights situation in Belarus.

On 28 June 2022, Human Rights House Foundation called on the Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus during the 50th session of the Council.

Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) highlighted the chilling effect that online surveillance and legal harassment including SLAPPs have on freedom of expression. In addition, HRHF raised its concern about the situation for independent journalists and media outlets in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Russia.