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Human Rights House Foundation announces a call for applications to House-to-House Project Fund 2022. HRHF welcomes all Human Rights Houses, their member organisations as well as organisations and actors from outside of the network to apply for funding.

Today, the Minsk City Court will begin hearings in the trial against Viasna member Marfa Rabkova and volunteer Andrey Chapiuk. Both are being prosecuted on politically motivated charges and face up to 20 years and eight years of imprisonment respectively. The proceedings are taking place as Viasna’s 26th anniversary approaches, in an overwhelmingly repressive context in Belarus. The signatory organisations reiterate their utmost support for Viasna, and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all its members as well as all arbitrarily imprisoned human rights defenders in the country.

The renewed invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022 must be considered within the broader regional human rights crisis which encompasses Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Find out how you can take action to support civil society in Eastern Europe through various fundraising activities below.

On 17 March 2022, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council calling for the Council to renew the mandate of the OHCHR examination of Belarus.

Watch the full recording of “Belarus: Next steps toward accountability at the Human Rights Council”, a side event hosted ahead of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council. This event was organised by the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to UN Office at Geneva and Human Rights House Foundation.

On Sunday, 27 February 2022, Belarusian authorities will hold a national referendum on a new draft constitution. The proposed constitution, the third since Alexander Lukashenka became President in 1994, has drawn widespread criticism for providing the opportunity to tighten Lukashenka’s grip on power.

In a joint letter, Human Rights House Foundation and 12 international and Belarusian organisations urge Human Rights Council member and observer states to support the renewal of the OHCHR examination of the human rights situation in Belarus at its 49th session.

Volha Harbunova is a Belarusian woman human rights defender, psychologist, and former head of the non-governmental organisation Radislava, which offers support to women who face domestic and gender-based violence. Harbunova was arrested on 9 November 2021 on suspicion of organising all-women marches in 2020.

Viktar Pantsaleeu was detained on 18 August 2020 in the framework of a criminal case relating to “mass riots” that allegedly took place in Brest on 10 August, the same day that Aliaksandr Lukashenka was returned to power in elections that are widely deemed to have been undemocratic.