“The world must not look away”: Viasna’s Uladzimir Labkovich on Human Rights, Repression, and New Challenges for Belarusians
On 26 August, EPDE hosted a meeting with Uladzimir Labkovich, a Belarusian human rights lawyer, election observer, and Board member of the Human Rights Organisation Viasna who was held as a political prisoner for five years before being released on 13 December 2025 together with 122 others amongst them Ales Bialiatski, and forced to leave the country. […]
250 political prisoners released in Belarus – including Viasna’s Valiantsin Stefanovich and Marfa Rabkova
On March 19, with the assistance of the American government, several political prisoners were pardoned, among them Valiantsin Stefanovich, a member of Viasna’s Board and former vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Viasna human rights activist Marfa Rabkova. This followed a meeting between US President Donald Trump’s special envoy John Coale and Aliaksandr […]
Statement by the Viasna Human Rights Center on the release of political prisoners on December 13
The Viasna Human Rights Center welcomes the release of Ales Bialiatski, Uladz Labkovich, and other Belarusian political prisoners on December 13, 2025. This event was the result of long-term, consistent, and principled efforts by the Belarusian society, the international democratic community, international organizations, and diplomacy of the United States of America and European democracies, which for many years have […]
Belarus | Four years of arbitrary detention – the crackdown on Viasna members must end
Four years after the detention of Viasna members Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, along with the EPDE and other organisations, urge the Belarusian authorities to uphold […]
Understanding the Belarusian Presidential Elections*2025
The expert monitoring mission for the Belarusian presidential elections* 2025 is carried out by the Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. The mission is aimed at evaluating the elections from the viewpoint of the Belarusian electoral legislation and international standards of free and democratic elections, as well as informing the Belarusian public […]
Belarus: Analytical report on the results of monitoring the election campaigning
In violation of its OSCE commitments, Belarusian authorities failed to invite credible international observation organizations, such as ODIHR or OSCE PA, in a timely manner, deliberately obstructing independent oversight. Meanwhile, domestic election observation has been virtually eradicated, with organizations branded as “extremist” and liquidated, and their leaders imprisoned or exiled. Human Rights Center “Viasna” founder […]
EPDE Statement: Meet the Props: How Lukashenka’s Fake Observers Tried to Sell His Sham Election
The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) has exposed how over 90 politically biased “observers” were deployed to whitewash the fraudulent 2025 Belarusian Presidential Election. The Lukashenka regime, notorious for systematic human rights abuses and repression of civil society, manufactured international legitimacy by inviting hand-picked “observers”—many with direct ties to authoritarian regimes, Kremlin-linked disinformation networks, or criminal investigations in their home countries. […]
Lukashenka or Lukashenka? Elections* without Choice in Belarus
The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE),together with Belarusian Helsinki Committee and Human Rights Center Viasna, hosted a briefing on Belarus’s upcoming presidential elections*, scheduled for January 26, 2025. The recording is now available on YouTube. For the seventh time, Belarus is staging the ritual of “electing” Aliaksandr Lukashenka as president, in a climate of […]
Belarus: Analytical report on the results of monitoring the nomination and registration of candidates
The expert election* 2025 observation mission was organized by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Viasna Human Rights Center as part of the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign. The mission collects and analyzes information about the election campaign based on open sources and messages from voters from Belarus. CONCLUSIONS *The term “elections*” in relation to […]
“How can free and fair elections take place in such an environment in Belarus?” OSCE countries issued a statement
Ahead of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting on December 6, 37 participating states issued a statement on the elections in Belarus. It noted that they remain deeply concerned about the constantly deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus, Pozirk reported. The statement once again called for the release of all political prisoners: “We reiterate that the Belarusian authorities must ensure […]
