Suppression of Speech in Belarus Raises Major Human Rights Concerns

Author: Aahana Nagwekar

September 18, 2026

HRRC condemns the blatant suppression of freedom of speech by high-level institutions in response to criticism by their citizens. Crimes like persecution and wrongful imprisonment must be directly addressed, with Belarusian institutions taking accountability for unjust actions. 

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

A panel of independent United Nations experts has concluded that Belarusian state institutions, such as courts, police, security services, prosecutors, and prison authorities, have worked together since 2020 to repress critics of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994.

In a report published this 14th of September and set to go before the UN Human Rights Council this week, the experts described "systematic" violations of international human rights obligations spanning arrests, detentions, convictions, and post-release supervisions. They pointed to arbitrary arrests, torture, denial of legal safeguards, closed trials, and ongoing harassment of former detainees, and said the judiciary had helped legitimize these abuses while denying victims any effective remedy.

The findings reaffirm earlier conclusions that some abuses committed since May 2020 could amount to crimes against humanity, including persecution and imprisonment. Belarus has not cooperated with the investigation, and requests to visit the country went unanswered.

The report follows the mass protests that erupted after Belarus's disputed August 2020 election, which Lukashenko was declared to have won amid widespread allegations of fraud. Thousands were arrested in the ensuing crackdown, and the Belarusian rights group Viasna says more than 900 political prisoners remain jailed. Lukashenko denies holding political prisoners, calling them "bandits."

The report's release coincided with the arrival of US envoy John Coale in Minsk for his first talks with Lukashenko in six months, aimed at securing further releases of political prisoners.

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Glossary

• Accountability – subject to the obligation to report, explain, or justify something; 

• Arbitrary Arrests – the apprehension or deprivation of a person's liberty without legal justification, proper due process, or compliance with recognized international human rights standard

• Blantant – brazenly obvious; flagrant.

• Closed Trials – a legal proceeding where the public, media, and observers are excluded from the courtroom

• Crackdowns – the severe or stern enforcement of regulations, laws, etc.

• Crimes Against Humanity – severe, inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population

• Imprisonment – the act of confining in or as if in a prison; the state of being so confined.

• Persecution – a program or campaign to exterminate, drive away, or subjugate people based on their membership in a religious, ethnic, social, or racial group.

• Political Prisoners – a person who is arrested or imprisoned because their political beliefs or activities are seen as a threat to the government or state.

• Reassert – to state something again with confidence or to make your power and control clear once more

• Remedy – something that corrects or removes an evil of any kind

• Repression – the act of keeping down or suppressing

• Safeguard – something that serves as a protection or defense or that ensures safety

• Suppression – the act of putting an end to the activities of (a person, body of persons, etc.).

• Suppress – to put an end to the activities of (a person, body of persons, etc.).