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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.

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.

In September 2020, the prominent Belarusian opposition figure Maryia Kalesnikava was abducted from Minsk and taken to the border where security forces tried to expel her from the country; she ripped up her passport in defiance. In the days that followed she was charged with incitement to undermine national security and placed in pre-trial detention. The letter that follows was written by Maryia Kalesnikava to her father on 16 July 2021, the day the Supreme Court rejected her complaint regarding the extension of her detention until 1 August.

Today, Human Rights House Foundation marks the anniversary of the latest illegitimate presidential election in Belarus. The 2020 Presidential election, however, represents a turning point in the country’s recent history as Belarusian citizens united like never before in protesting the violation of their electoral rights. The protests led to an unprecedented brutal response from the authorities which continues unabated. 

On July 26th 2021, Human Rights House Foundation, alongside more than 150 civil society organisations and independent experts, is calling on States to immediately implement a moratorium on the sale, transfer and use of surveillance technology.

Human Rights House Foundation joins 160+ human rights organisations in demanding an end to the repression against the Human Rights Center Viasna and all other human rights defenders in Belarus.

We, the undersigned organisations, members of the Civic Solidarity Platform, with increasing pain and anger have witnessed the assault over the past year by the de facto Belarusian authorities on democratically-minded persons, independent media, civil society organisations and professionals that defend human rights, such as lawyers.