A review of Human Rights in Belarus: Key Trends in Public Policy: January—April 2025 has been published.
Among the trends
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The seventh presidential election, held in January 2025, did not result in a reduction of repressive policies in Belarus. On the contrary, the human rights situation remains consistently dire, with further qualitative deterioration observed.
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The authorities continue to pursue a dual-track strategy: a planned and comprehensive review of legislation involving positive changes on the one hand, and, on the other, the parallel formalisation of repressive practices. In 2025-2026, a further expansion of legal grounds for persecution may be anticipated, particularly in the fields of administrative liability, labour relations, healthcare, and culture. Such formalisation takes place both through the introduction of new provisions and through the codification of de facto repressive practices into law.
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The state continues to adapt to the post-2020 political reality by deliberately restructuring the legal system to sustain repressive practices. In addition to revising key strategic documents such as the National Security Concept and the Legal Policy Concept in 2023 and the Military Doctrine in 2024, Directive No. 12 “On the Implementation of the Fundamentals of the Ideology of the Belarusian State” was issued by A. Lukashenko in April 2025. This directive became the first unified legal act regulating the ideological sphere. It establishes uniform standards for organising and conducting ideological work nationwide. In the coming year, one may expect increased pressure in workplaces (especially in the private sector) and in the education sector.
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Through legislation, conditions are being established to increase repressive pressure across the entire administrative hierarchy. Directive No. 12 introduces personal accountability for managers regarding the “quality of ideological work”. Another key document — Directive No. 11 “On Improving the Functioning of the System of Public Authorities and Governance and Strengthening Executive Discipline”, adopted in the first quarter of 2025 — declares executive discipline a national priority. Given the language, objectives, and systemic role of both directives, increased oversight of their implementation may be expected. This pressure is likely to affect the broader repressive climate as well.
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The use of a family’s classification as being in a “socially dangerous situation” (SDS) as a tool of politically motivated repression evolves. A new regulation entered into force in January 2025: firstly, the number of administrative offences that can trigger such a designation doubled (from 6 to 12); secondly, four of the newly added offences are already being used for political persecution.
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Among the key developments in the area of economic, social and cultural rights: firstly, additional restrictions were introduced targeting unemployed persons (so-called “social parasites”), violating their rights, including the right to work and social protection. Notably, the required minimum length of employment to qualify for unemployment benefits was arbitrarily increased to five years. Secondly, new provisions were adopted that unjustifiably restrict the rights of self-employed persons working in the education sector.
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At the beginning of 2025, an amendment presumably aimed at mitigating the effects of the “passport decree” came into force. The previous requirement to obtain a certificate of non-marriage from the Belarusian civil registry for those intending to marry abroad was lifted. Instead, a notarised personal declaration of no impediments to marriage is now accepted.
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The primary and most significant trend in law enforcement practice that violates human rights in the first trimester of 2025 is the restriction of tools for monitoring developments in this area: public access to the electronic schedule of court hearings has been discontinued. Combined with the termination of access to the anonymised court decision database in 2024, this development deprives civil society — including human rights defenders — of virtually all official sources for tracking law enforcement trends in general and politically motivated persecution in particular.
About the Review of Trends
This review will highlight the substantive changes in Belarusian public policy in the field of human rights and reactions to it of the international community in three areas:
- general measures: systemic things — legislation, strategies, policies, that generally determine the conditions and background for the implementation of human rights in Belarus;
- law enforcement practice: concrete violations of civil and political rights, as well as in the field of social, economic, and cultural rights;
- key decisions and reactions of international institutions regarding the situation with human rights in Belarus.
Our analytics is for a better understanding of the trends and situation with human rights in Belarus and for the possibility of monitoring systemic and essential changes, as well as for expanding the human rights focus in related expert spheres (economic, political, social, etc.). It also can be used for justification of positions, opinions, policies, and strategies.
