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2 October 2025 marks six months since former political prisoner Andrei Chapiuk was released from prison in Belarus, and since he left the country for his safety. This month also marks five years since he was imprisoned. In this interview with HRHF, Chapiuk discussed adjusting to life outside of prison and in a new country, as well as the human rights situation in Belarus and his colleagues still behind bars.

“This year’s Václav Havel Prize must signal the Council of Europe to turn praise of courage into action against autocrats, even within its own ranks,” argues Emin Abbasov (Independent Lawyers Network), Maria Dahle (Human Rights House Foundation), and Natallia Satsunkevich (Human Rights Centre Viasna) in International Politics and Society.

In an interactive dialogue with the Belarus Group of Independent Experts during HRC60, Human Rights House Foundation welcomed the Expert’s conference room paper, as well as highlighted the situation for over 1000 political prisoners in the country, including Ales Bialiatski, Uladzimir Labkovich, Valiantsin Stefanovic, Marfa Rabkova and Nasta Loika.

On 17 September 2020, human rights defender and Viasna member Marfa Rabkova was arbitrarily detained for her legitimate human rights work. On the fifth anniversary of her detention, Human Rights House Foundation joins 30 human rights organisations, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, in renewing the call for her immediate and unconditional release.

In August 2025, Belarusian human rights defenders gathered in Geneva to advocate ahead of the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Belarus. This two-day programme of meetings with diplomats and participation in the UPR pre-session was the culmination of a nine-month capacity-building journey led by Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) aimed at preparing Belarusian civil society partners, including members of the Network of Human Rights Houses, to engage effectively in the UPR process and to support them in making formal submissions within the process.

Four years after the detention of Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, over 40 international human rights organisations urge the Belarusian authorities to uphold the rule of law and to immediately and unconditionally release all human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in Belarus.

At the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council, HRHF called on the Belarusian authorities to end incommunicado detentions and ill treatement, reinstate banned NGOs, repeal repressive laws and to engage with the Council’s Belarus mechanisms.

At the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation condemned state-backed disinformation, legal harassment, and physical attacks targeting journalists and election observers in countries like Belarus, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Serbia. Citing the imprisonment of Anar Mammadli and widespread abuse of “national security” laws, HRHF called for clear benchmarks to hold states accountable during election cycles.

We members of the Network of Human Rights Houses stand in solidarity with our imprisoned colleagues in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, as well as all political prisoners in the region.