The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a partnership of FIDH and OMCT) and several human rights organizations from various countries have issued a statement regarding the release of political prisoners in Belarus on December 13, 2025. The statement indicates that the regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka released over a hundred political prisoners following an agreement with the United States to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash. Among the released are prominent human rights defenders and Viasna members Ales Bialiatski and Uladzimir Labkovich, as well as key opposition figures, such as Maryia Kalesnikava, Viktar Babaryka and lawyer Maksim Znak. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and the undersigned organisations welcome this long-awaited release, which constitutes a necessary but insufficient step, as all arbitrarily detained human rights defenders, including former FIDH Vice President and Viasna colleague Valiantsin Stefanovic, Viasna team member Marfa Rabkova, and woman human rights defender Nasta Loika must be released now.
The Observatory recalls that Ales Bialiatski, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Viasna lawyer Uladzimir Labkovich were arbitrarily detained on 14 July 2021, prosecuted, and sentenced to ten and seven years of prison respectively on 3 March 2023, in retaliation for their legitimate and peaceful human rights activities. Their imprisonment constituted a grave violation of Belarus’ international human rights obligations, including the rights to freedom of expression, association, and fair trial.
While their release brings long-overdue relief to them, their families, their colleagues and the human rights community around the world, the Observatory stresses that this step remains insufficient as long as hundreds of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, activists, and political opponents remain arbitrarily detained in Belarus on politically motivated charges solely for exercising their fundamental freedoms, and repressions against Belarusian dissidents continue unabated. In particular, Valiantsin Stefanovic, former Vice President of FIDH arrested along Ales Bialiatski and Uladzimir Labkovic in July 2021, women human rights defender and Viasna member Marfa Rabkova, detained since September 2020, and founder of Human Constanta woman human rights defender Nasta Loika, arbitrarily detained since September 2022, were not among the released political prisoners. Alongside them, numerous human rights journalists, lawyers, and trade union activists remain arbitrarily detained, including Andrzej Poczobut, Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Ihar Ilyash, Daniil Palianski, Pavel Dabravolski, Andrei Aliaksandrau, and many others.
The Observatory and the undersigned organisations call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all human rights defenders and political prisoners who have been arbitrarily detained, to put an end to judicial harassment and reprisals against civil society, and to repeal repressive legislation used to criminalise peaceful dissent and freedom of expression. The authorities must also ensure full rehabilitation, including the quashing of convictions and restoration of civil and political rights, for all those unlawfully detained for years.
The Observatory and the undersigned organisations further urge the international community to continue to closely monitor the situation in Belarus and to take all available legal, political and diplomatic measures to ensure accountability for the grave human rights violations and international crimes, including by referring the situation to the International Criminal Court.
The undersigned organisations:
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- Human Rights Center Viasna
- Human Rights Center, Georgia
- ILI Foundation, Kazakhstan
- Civil Society Institute, Armenia
- Public Association “Dignity”, Kazakhstan
- Promo-LEX Association, Moldova
- Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Norway
- Östgruppen (Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights)
- Austausch e.V., Germany
- Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC)
- Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Hungary
- Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan
- aditus foundation, Malta
- LIBERECO – Partnership for Human Rights, Germany/Switzerland
- REDRESS
- The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
- ARTICLE 19
- People In Need
- Front Line Defenders
- Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan
- ADC Memorial
- European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE)
- International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
- Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Ukraine
- Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine
- Creative workshop on human rights and psychosocial resilience, Poland
