Belarus: Five years of relentless crackdown on cultural rights
Image Credit: D'Action Images / Shutterstock
‘Belarusian culture, language and identity have come under sustained onslaught over the past five years. It is high time the international community takes a stance in support of the Belarusian people, who continue to risk everything to uphold their fundamental rights, and the freedom to create’, said Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.
8 August 2025 – The Belarusian authorities continue to brutally crack down on writers and cultural figures with complete impunity, PEN Belarus, PEN International and PEN America said today, marking five years since the fraudulent presidential elections of August 2020. The organisations urge accountability for gross human rights violations and unfettered support for Belarusian culture.
The human rights record of Belarus will come under review by the UN Human Rights Council during the Universal Period Review (UPR) in November 2025. Ahead of the review, PEN Belarus, PEN International, and PEN America have made a submission to the UN documenting the authorities’ ever-growing clampdown on freedom of expression, cultural rights and linguistic rights, triggered by the 2020 presidential elections and the mass protests that ensued. The submission reveals how the Belarusian authorities have brutally silenced all dissent, and specifically targeted Belarusian culture and language.
The scale of the repression is staggering. PEN Belarus recorded over 5,800 cases of violations of cultural rights and the human rights of cultural figures since August 2020. At least 159 cultural figures, including 40 ‘People of the Word’, are currently imprisoned or under house arrest on spurious grounds, including PEN members Ales Bialiatski and Maksim Znak, and Honorary PEN member Kaciaryna Andrejeva (real name Bachvałava). Five cultural figures have died in custody. Over 1,192 NGOs, including at least 250 cultural ones, have been forcibly liquidated. At least five independent publishing houses have been shuttered. 141 books have been banned for being ‘potentially harmful to national interests’; 81 books have been labelled as ‘extremist materials’ alongside hundreds of artistic resources and social media content. Meanwhile, cultural institutions have been turned into state propaganda tools. Significant art spaces have been shut down. The scope of what is permissible in the cultural sphere has been drastically narrowed, pushing independent artistic expression underground.
The criminal justice system has been weaponized to target dissent, including through overbroad counterterrorism and anti-extremism legislation. Amendments to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Belarus enables stripping Belarusians of their citizenship for ‘extremist’ activity while the so-called ‘Passport Decree’ severely restricts the ability of Belarusians abroad to obtain identity documents or conduct legal and administrative procedures, resulting in significant obstacles to personal, professional, and family life.
Although the Belarusian language is classified as potentially vulnerable by UNESCO, the Belarusian authorities have failed to provide equal rights for the use of the Belarusian language. Discrimination is widespread, resulting in a steep decline in the number of native speakers. Belarusian-language books are under particular scrutiny of state control bodies. Materials supporting national minorities have been labelled as ‘extremist’. Mother-tongue education in some Polish and Lithuanian schools is banned.
PEN Belarus, PEN International and PEN America call upon the Belarusian authorities to immediately stop incommunicado detentions and release all writers and cultural figures held solely for peacefully expressing their views. The authorities must stop the harassment and persecution of cultural figures inside and outside Belarus, including by repealing the ‘Passport Decree’ and repressive amendments to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Belarus. The organisations further call on the authorities to take the necessary legislative, administrative and judicial measures to ensure safe conditions for implementing creative activities and cultural projects, and to preserve and develop Belarusian culture.
Additional information
For more information about the work of PEN Belarus, including their monitoring of cultural and human rights violations against cultural workers, please click here.