4.4. Human rights defenders and lawyers

Table of contents

4.4.1. Human rights defenders

Human rights defenders in Belarus face arbitrary detention in retaliation for their professional activities.528 One human rights defenders in detention was convicted to seven years in prison529 for providing a human rights organisation ‘with information about politically motivated criminal cases in courts.’530 In December 2025, two human rights defenders were pardoned as part of US negotiations with the Belarusian authorities.531 On 19 March 2026, three human rights defenders were released following a presidential pardon.532

The authorities use anti-extremism legislation against human rights defenders. In August 2025, the Belarusian Association of Human Rights Lawyers, established in 2023 by Belarusian attorneys in exile, was declared an extremist formation. Consequently, its members face criminal prosecution for involvement in extremist activities in relation to their professional duties, including providing legal counselling on trials conducted in absentia and assisting with complaints to international human rights bodies.533

  • 528

    RSF, Belarus, n.d., url

  • 529

    Viasna Human Rights Center, Vital Chopik, n.d., url

  • 530

    Viasna, Human rights situation in Belarus. January 2026, 4 February 2026, url

  • 531

    Reuters, Ales Bialiatski, who won Nobel prize while behind bars, is freed from prison in Belarus, 13 December 2025, url; Viasna Human Rights Center, Uladzimir Labkovich, n.d., url

  • 532

    Article 19, Belarus: Release of Nasta Lojka and over 200 other political prisoners, 19 March 2026, url

  • 533

    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. 81