CIVICUS welcomes the release of Belarusian human rights defenders Ales Bialiatski and Uladzimir Labkovich, who were freed on 13 December 2025 as part of a broader release of 123 political prisoners by Belarusian authorities. Bialiatski, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Viasna Human Rights Centre, had been serving a 10-year sentence after a politically motivated conviction in March 2023. Labkovich, a lawyer with Viasna and coordinator of the "Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections" campaign, had been sentenced to 7 years in the same case.
For years, Bialiatski was one of the most prominent symbols of peaceful resistance and civil society resilience in Belarus. On 3 March 2023, he was sentenced to a decade in prison and fined approximately USD 69,000 on charges widely condemned as fabricated efforts to suppress independent human rights work. His imprisonment was marked by harsh conditions, including limited access to medical care, solitary confinement, and denial of essential medicines for his chronic health issues. Reports by human rights monitors and his family raised serious concerns about his deteriorating health in detention. In May 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that Bialiatski’s detention was arbitrary and called for his immediate release, a call that went unheeded until the recent developments.
Ales Bialiatski and Viasna human rights defenders are central to CIVICUS’ Stand As My Witness campaign, which highlights defenders targeted solely for advancing human rights and civic freedoms. His case exemplifies the sustained repression faced by civil society in Belarus and the personal cost of such repression. His release is a moment of relief and recognition for human rights advocates globally, yet it also underscores the ongoing plight of more than a thousand political prisoners still detained in Belarus under repressive conditions, including Viasna members Marfa Rabkova and Valiantsin Stefanovich.
We call on the Government of Belarus to:
- Immediately and unconditionally release all remaining political prisoners and end the use of politically motivated prosecutions to silence dissent;
- Halt all harassment and punitive measures against human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and civil society actors;
- Comply with Belarus’ international human rights obligations, particularly those concerning freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the right to a fair trial.
While this release represents a positive development, it should not obscure the ongoing repression in Belarus. The international community must sustain pressure on Belarusian authorities to respect human rights, release all unjustly detained civil society actors, and create conditions where independent voices can thrive without fear of imprisonment or retaliation.
The CIVICUS Monitor rates Belarus as closed.
