Sources noted on inhumane conditions of detention’,396 ill-treatment,397 torture, and inhumane or degrading treatment in detention.398 The UN Group of Independent Experts concluded that Belarus continues to systematically violate the country’s international obligations – Article 10 of ICCPR and UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment Prisoners – in relation to detainees held in various types of detention facilities across the country, such as prisons, penal colonies, pretrial detention facilities and temporary detention centres.399 General reported conditions included lack of proper hygiene and healthcare,400 overcrowding,401 inadequate provision of food and clothing, and forced labour regardless of detainees’ health condition.402
In the aftermath of the 2020 protests, law enforcement and security force officers reportedly used excessive physical force against protesters and ill-treatment and torture against individuals detained during the protests. Allegations of sexual violence have also been reported. According to the UN Group of Independent Experts, injuries sustained by the protesters ‘were usually not recorded by law enforcement officials, judicial authorities or medical personnel within detention facilities.’403
Individuals arrested on politically motivated charges have reportedly faced ill-treatment and torture at all stages of detention, including at the time of their arrest and during transportation, interrogation, and detention404 as well as at the stage of the investigation of politically motivated criminal cases.405 Individuals included in the lists of persons involved in extremist or terrorist activities face intentional ill-treatment406 and ‘particularly tough prison conditions.’407
Sources noted that persons imprisoned on politically motivated charges have been subjected to harsher conditions of detention compared to other prisoners408 and various restrictions, including on access to religious services, exercise facilities, and prison library.409 They are reportedly also identifiable in prisons by yellow badges on their prison uniforms.410 Political prisoners face prolonged isolation,411 including incommunicado detention412 and detention in solitary punishment cells.413
Many political prisoners have faced ‘disciplinary deprivation of privileges, including care packages containing medicines,’414 contact with family members and legal counsel,415 and money transfers.416 Furthermore, correspondence by political prisoners is subject to arbitrary restrictions417 and ‘their ability to receive parcels and correspondence was limited to close relatives only’.418
The authorities use ‘harsh disciplinary measures’ to punish political prisoners ‘for minor or fabricated transgressions.’419 Particularly, Article 411 of the Criminal Code, which establishes criminal liability for ‘malicious disobedience’ to the penitentiary administration420 has been used to impose additional prison sentences, enabling repeated conviction and extension of detention.421 In addition, political prisoners are ‘systematically denied eligibility for early release on parole.’422
Political prisoners are continuously prevented from receiving timely and adequate medical care.423 As of January 2026, more than 170 political prisoners were reportedly ‘in a particularly vulnerable situation.’424 Since 2020, nine political prisoners reportedly died in detention,425 including four in 2024426 and two in 2025.427 At least eight of nine reported deaths in custody ‘resulted from a failure to protect life in detention’. All eight were serving prison sentences in relation with the 2020 protests and some of them ‘had serious pre-existing mental and physical health conditions that were known to the authorities.’428
The UN Group of Independent Experts recorded ‘several cases in which penitentiary officers, members of the Special Purpose Police Detachment or representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor General pressured detainees on politically motivated grounds’ to request pardons.429 In several instances, those who refused to sign such request ‘were subjected to severe psychological violence’, including being ‘transferred to punitive isolation cells.’430
- 396
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 19; UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 26
- 397
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Belarus, 14 November 2025, url; UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 3
- 398
AI, Belarus 2024, 28 April 2025, url; Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Belarus, 14 November 2025, url
- 399
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 26
- 400
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 19; UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 26
- 401
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 26
- 402
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 19
- 403
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 36
- 404
UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 7 February 2025, url, para. 42
- 405
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. February 2026, 3 March 2026, url
- 406
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 73
- 407
AP, A political prisoner dies in Belarusian prison, human rights activists say, 22 May 2025, url
- 408
UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 7 February 2025, url, para. 42; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus in 2025, 13 January 2026, url
- 409
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 28
- 410
AI, Belarus 2024, 28 April 2025, url
- 411
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url
- 412
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 19; HRW, Belarus Releases Opposition Politician, 13 Other Political Prisoners, 23 June 2025, url
- 413
AI, Belarus 2024, 28 April 2025, url; HRW, Belarus – Events of 2024, 16 January 2025, url; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. February 2026, 3 March 2026, url
- 414
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus in 2025, 13 January 2026, url; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. January 2026, 4 February 2026, url
- 415
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 26; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus in 2025, 13 January 2026, url
- 416
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. January 2026, 4 February 2026, url
- 417
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus in 2025, 13 January 2026, url
- 418
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 28
- 419
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 19
- 420
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 3; UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 32
- 421
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url; UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 33; Human rights specialist, Interview with EUAA, 20 March 2026
- 422
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 28
- 423
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2024, 16 January; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. January 2026, 4 February 2026, url; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. February 2026, 3 March 2026, url
- 424
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. January 2026, 4 February 2026, url
- 425
Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus in 2025, 13 January 2026, url
- 426
Viasna, Как беларусы умирают из-за политического преследования [How Belarusians are dying due to political persecution], 9 September 2025, url
- 427
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url; Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus in 2025, 13 January 2026, url
- 428
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 38
- 429
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 63
- 430
UN Human Rights Council, Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, 6 February 2026, url, para. 64