Search Results for: Belarus

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has urged states to protect the world LGBTQ+ community, in a statement marking the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. Türk said discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ+ community remain widespread. More than one in three countries still criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, he said. Last year, [...]

UN experts on Monday raised alarm over allegations of poor conditions, inhumane treatment, and other international law violations at a Belarus detention center. Following confidential meetings with a Navapolatsk Correctional Colony psychologist, experts heard reports of “detainees…subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, disciplinary sanctions and physical punishments after suicide attempts, denial  of essential medical care.” Detainees [...]

A group of seven UN experts expressed alarm on Wednesday about a new law aimed at silencing LGBTQ+ voices and proponents of human and women’s rights in Belarus. The experts were concerned that this repression would breed further harassment and marginalization of LGBTQ+ individuals, women, and other minority groups: This law represents a dangerous escalation. [...]

The Belarus parliament passed a bill on Thursday criminalizing “propaganda” for LGBTQA+ relationships, sex change, child-free lifestyles, and pedophilia, with punishment including fines, community service, or 15 days detention. Parliament drafted the bill in February 2024. The bill will now go to President Aleksander Lukashenko, who is expected to sign it. Belarus decriminalized homosexuality in [...]

Belarus has freed 250 political prisoners following sanctions-relief negotiations with the United States, a move human rights organizations cautiously welcomed, while warning that true justice has yet to be served. President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the mass release on Thursday. The decision was the result of direct negotiations with the Trump administration, which agreed to lift [...]

Human Rights Watch, along with 17 rights organizations, on Monday published an open letter to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), urging it to renew and strengthen respective mandates for the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus and the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus.  [...]

Belarusian prisoner of conscience and opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich was released from imprisonment on Friday after suffering a stroke in January. Following his release, Amnesty International reiterated the need for justice for victims of human rights violations in Belarus. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe director, stated: “Releasing a prisoner of conscience after he has [...]

The UN Human Rights Office raised alarm on Monday over a “sharp hike” in the number of executions globally in 2025. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk articulated the office’s key concerns, stating: My Office monitored an alarming increase in the use of the capital punishment in 2025, especially for offences not meeting [...]

A UN human rights expert on Wednesday welcomed the recent release of several prisoners convicted in connection with protests following Belarus’ disputed 2020 presidential election.  They also cautioned that the move should not be read as a broader improvement in the country’s human rights situation. Nils Muižnieks, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights [...]

A political prisoner died in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following 13 years of arbitrary detention and abuse, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center (EDAC) reported on Wednesday. HRW’s UAE researcher Joey Shea stated: Al-Khaja’s death follows years of arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and overall mistreatment by Emirati authorities, though he should [...]