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On the first anniversary of the unprecedented crackdown on the Human Rights Center Viasna (“Viasna”) in Belarus, Human Rights House Foundation joins 22 international and Belarusian human rights organizations in launching a campaign to demand the release of seven detained Viasna members, as well as highlighting the plight of hundreds of others, who have been prosecuted and jailed solely for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

Maxim Znak is a lawyer who has been in detention since 18 September 2020. Shortly after his detention, he told his lawyer: “Normal life of society is impossible without law, just as human life is impossible without food”.

What Protection providers, States, and Donors can do: recommendations from HRDs across Eastern Europe, South Caucasus, and Central Asia

We, the undersigned members of the network of Human Rights Houses, call on United Nations (UN) member states to ensure that the Human Rights Council’s investigative mechanism on Belarus has all necessary resources to undertake its mandate.

Human Rights House Foundation is outraged by the liquidation of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) and stands in solidarity with BAJ and the rest of Belarusian civil society currently under siege. We call on the international community to use all available tools to support Belarusian civil society and human rights defenders, including individual sanctions against all those responsible for human rights violations in the country.

Human Rights House Foundation announces a call for applications to House-to-House Project Fund 2021. HRHF welcomes all Human Rights Houses, their member organisations as well as organisations and actors from outside of the network to apply for funding.

Volha Takarchuk runs a political vlog with almost 37,000 subscribers. She was detained several times after the August 2020 election, but on the morning of 19 May her apartment was searched, some of her belongings were seized, and she was detained. She has remained in prison since then.

Aliaksandr Vasilevich is a businessman, owner of the Vondel/Hepta advertising agency and the “Ў” Gallery, which was formerly one of the main cultural centres in Belarus. He is also the co-founder of the online media Kyky.org and TheVillage Belarus. He was detained on 28 August 2020 by representatives of the Financial Investigation Department of the State Control Committee.

Five Belarusian journalists and media institutions have been awarded Fritt Ord’s Free Media Awards for 2021. The awards recognise the courageous and crucial work of independent Belarusian media amidst the on-going unprecedented crackdown.