Belarus: Four years of arbitrary detention – crackdown on Viasna members must end

Four years after the detention of Viasna members Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT), along with the undersigned organisations and individuals, urge the Belarusian authorities to uphold the rule of law and to immediately and unconditionally release all members of Human Rights Center “Viasna”, as well as all other human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in Belarus.

Paris-Geneva, 14 July 2025 – Four years have now passed since the arbitrary detention of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Viasna Chairperson Ales Bialiatski, FIDH Vice-President Valiantsin Stefanovic, and Viasna lawyer Uladzimir Labkovich on 14 July 2021 in an unprecedented raid against Belarusian civil society. Convicted on fabricated and politically motivated charges, they were respectively sentenced to ten, nine and seven years of imprisonment on 3 March 2023. They remain arbitrarily imprisoned at the time of this publication and are consistently subjected to harsh conditions and ill-treatment. In particular, Ales Bialiatski’s situation is deeply alarming: correspondence with his family is unstable—his wife last received a letter from him in December 2024, and it is likely that her letters have not reached him. There is also no evidence that he is receiving adequate or timely medical care for his chronic diseases, raising serious concerns that his health is worsening due to the conditions of his imprisonment.

The severe repression against Human Right Center Viasna -one of the leading Belarusian human rights organisations that has long been at the forefront of the Belarusian human rights movement - which currently has four of its members behind bars, remains deeply concerning. The reprisals against the organisation and its members are part of a broader crackdown on civil society in Belarus, especially following the mass protests against the falsified 2020 Presidential elections. In the aftermath of the protests, the authorities shut down all human rights and other independent organisations, leaving not one legally operating human rights NGO in the country. As of 2 July 2025, at least, 1,164 individuals remain arbitrarily detained in Belarus for political reasons, among them Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic, Uladzimir Labkovich, as well as Marfa Rabkova, sentenced to almost 15 years in prison, and Nasta Loika, co-founder of Human Constanta, who is serving a seven years sentence. All of them were subjected to acts of harassment, ill-treatment and/or torture, and denied access to legal counsel. According to the SOS-Defenders platform, at least 38 media workers, 6 lawyers and 27 trade unionists are also currently arbitrarily detained. The undersigned organisations urge the Belarusian authorities to guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic, Uladzimir Labkovich and Marfa Rabkova, as well as all other arbitrarily detained human rights defenders, and to immediately and unconditionally release them.

The signatories denounce the ongoing repression in Belarus, stressing that the politically motivated, arbitrary harassment and ill-treatment of human rights defenders in Belarus must end. They further call for international accountability and an immediate cessation of all forms of politically motivated persecution—including escalating transnational repression—targeting Belarusian human rights defenders and civil society as a whole, whether in Belarus or abroad.

The signatories finally call on the authorities in Belarus to ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their legitimate activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions or being forced to exile.