Search Results for: Lukashenko

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 [...]

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 [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday celebrated the release of at least eight Belarusian journalists, part of a group of 52 political prisoners freed as the US eased sanctions on Belarus’ state airline Belavia. Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, shared a statement on the release: CPJ celebrates that at [...]

Lithuania filed a case against Belarus at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday, seeking damages in relation to the alleged large-scale smuggling of irregular migrants into Lithuania by the Lukashenko regime. The case revolves around alleged breaches by Belarus of its obligations under the UN Protocol against the smuggling of Migrants by Land, [...]

A group of independent human rights experts on Monday urged the release of political detainees with disabilities and serious health conditions in Belarus, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reported. The group of experts said the Belarusian government should consider the immediate release or non-custodial sanctions for persons with disabilities detained in the context of [...]

Independent UN rights experts expressed alarm Thursday about the use of forced psychiatric treatment to punish political dissenters in Belarus. The experts have stated that 33 people have been coerced into undergoing psychiatric treatment in response to political protest. Only eight of these have been reported released, meaning at least 25 more people are involuntarily [...]

The UN Group of Independent Experts on the Human Rights Situation in Belarus reported on Friday that the Belarusian government committed widespread human rights violations, including crimes against humanity against its civilian population to suppress opposition to President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The experts criticized the Belarusian government’s use of widespread measures in 2024 to purge “most [...]

Amnesty International on Friday urged Belarusian authorities to end their cycle of repression in light of the upcoming presidential election on January 26. The human rights organization claims President Alexander Lukashenko’s government is denying the Belarusian population the right to free speech by applying repressive measures such as arbitrary detentions, torture and criminalization of free [...]

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko announced on Saturday that he has pardoned 20 individuals accused of committing “extremist crimes.” Human rights activists have identified these individuals as political prisoners. This latest act of clemency marks the eighth such pardon since the summer of 2024, bringing the total number of political prisoners released to 207. According to [...]