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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 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.

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. 

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.