Published on: 2026-09-15
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
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According to human rights defenders’ findings, the country’s government committed widespread and systematic human rights violations. According to them, the report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council documents how law enforcement, judicial bodies, security services, and the prosecution acted jointly from May 1, 2020, with the aim of suppressing fundamental rights and freedoms.
Systematic human rights violations
“What we see is not a picture of isolated violations, but a system in which government bodies are systematically used to suppress dissent and fundamental freedoms,” said Karinna Moskalenko, chair of the Group of Independent Experts. “The criminal justice proceedings are an integral part of a broader repressive machine. Their consequences are felt not only by those who have been detained, prosecuted, or deprived of liberty, but by society as a whole, which is made to understand the price of dissent.”
The detentions, according to the report, are often arbitrary and violent in nature and are conducted by the police, the Committee for State Security, or the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption. According to findings by independent UN experts, plainclothes officers regularly arrest individuals they consider critical of the government without warrants, subject them to beatings, force them into uncomfortable positions, deny them access to lawyers, and compel them to record humiliating “confession” videos under coercion and threats against their families.
Harsh conditions of detention
The detainees, as noted in the report, are held in unsanitary conditions in overcrowded temporary detention centers, such as the Okrestina complex in Minsk, where they are subjected to sleep deprivation, psychological abuse, and lack of proper medical care.
Experts pay special attention to violations against women, including strip searches in the presence of male staff and deliberate deprivation of menstrual hygiene products.
“After official charges are brought, prosecutors regularly authorize prolonged pre-trial detention that can last up to two years,” reads the statement from the UN Expert Group. “Trials against political opponents, journalists, and human rights defenders are characterized by systematic violations of fair trial guarantees.”
According to independent experts, lawyers are stripped of their licenses or detained, motions are regularly denied, and court sessions often take place behind closed doors, with the accused held in iron cages in the courtroom.
The group notes that appellate courts almost invariably uphold convictions and that courts are increasingly trying people living abroad in absentia, who criticize the government or are considered its critics, without proper notice or the opportunity to use legal protection.
Violence and discrimination
“After the conviction verdict is issued, penitentiary institution staff, operating under the guidance of the Department of Penal Enforcement, systematically subject persons deprived of liberty for politically motivated reasons to discrimination, inhuman conditions, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and confinement without contact with the outside world,” warned UN experts.
According to them, such prisoners are marked with yellow tags, they are not allowed to participate in educational and religious activities, and punishments are applied to them for fabricated disciplinary violations, which leads to prolonged periods in solitary confinement, where, according to prisoners’ testimonies, they are subjected to “cold torture” and intentional deprivation of sleep and food.
In several cases, prolonged detention without contact with the outside world lasting more than two years has been documented, as well as intentional persecution of human rights groups such as the Vesna center, whose leaders were subjected to long-term detention and subsequently forcibly expelled without identity documents.
Continuation of repressions
Persecution by the state does not end after release, warn members of the Group. Courts, they say, often impose preventive supervision measures that violate personal boundaries for a period of two years, resulting in former prisoners being subjected to nighttime raids by security forces, invasive electronic checks, movement restrictions, and immediate re-detention for minor deviations from routine. As a result, many victims and their families are forced into exile abroad.
“Releases are important for those regaining their freedom, but they should not be mistakenly considered the end of repression,” noted expert Monika Platek. “The system underlying these violations and allowing them to happen remains in place, and there is still an urgent need to hold those responsible accountable.”
Hold those responsible accountable
“The Belarusian authorities should release all persons deprived of liberty on politically motivated charges, respect and protect the rights of all people in Belarus, conduct prompt and effective investigations into reports of human rights violations, bring those responsible to criminal justice, and provide compensation to the victims,” the Group’s statement says.
Experts also called on the government to grant access to the country, and on the international community to continue paying attention to the human rights situation in Belarus and to take all appropriate measures to hold those responsible accountable, protect the victims, and promote the realization of their rights.
“The international community must not turn a blind eye to what is happening,” said expert Susan Bazilli. “Those responsible for serious human rights violations must know that impunity cannot serve as their permanent shield, and the victims must know that their rights have not been forgotten.”
Independent experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. The experts act in a personal capacity and do not represent any government or organization.
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