Joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review of the Republic of Belarus by PEN Belarus,PEN International and PEN America

1 April 2025: Between 2020 and 2025, the Belarusian authorities have carried out a systematic and sustained assault on freedom of expression and cultural rights. Writers, artists, publishers, and other cultural figures have faced arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, exile, censorship, and criminal prosecution. Independent cultural institutions have been shuttered, and hundreds of individuals have been blacklisted or labelled as “extremists” or “terrorists.” Repressive laws and politically motivated dismissals have created a climate of fear, forcing many into silence or exile. Cultural life is now subject to ideological control, while Belarusian language and identity are being eroded under a policy of enforced Russification and integration with the Russian Federation.