The situation with human rights and fundamental freedoms in Belarus is determined by the “consistently high level of politically motivated repression.” This conclusion is contained in the review “The human rights situation in Belarus. September 2024”, prepared by the Human Rights Venter “Viasna”.
Among other things, human rights activists note that:
A consistently high level of politically motivated repression determines the situation with respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Belarus. As before, politically motivated criminal prosecution remains an urgent threat to all those who took part in protest performances or spoke critically about the political situation in the country or against regime officials, supported protest structures;
Since the summer of 2020, the human rights community has recognized 3,531 people as political prisoners, 627 of them are women. At the end of September 2024, there were 1,317 political prisoners in places of deprivation of liberty in Belarus, 169 of them are women, and 46 people were recognized as such by the human rights community during the month. Another 19 former political prisoners, whose names were not previously known to human rights defenders, have been required to be rehabilitated.
Human rights defenders: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) Valiantsin Stefanovich, as well as Uladzimir Labkovich, Marfa Rabkova, Andrei Chapyuk and Anastasia Loika, who were arbitrarily sentenced to imprisonment, are serving their sentences in correctional institutions;
There are still several political prisoners who have been held incommunicado for a long time: Maryia Kalesnikava, Viktar Babaryka, Mikalai Statkevich, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, Maxim Znak, Ihar Losik, Uladzimir Kniga, who have been deprived of contact with the outside world, including inside the colonies, since February-March 2023. There is also information about the periodic isolation of other political prisoners;
Arbitrary repressions against citizens for the exercise of civil rights continue: in September, “Viasna” received information about at least 429 cases of politically motivated repression resulting from criminal and administrative prosecution, of which at least 176 administrative cases considered by the courts.
