Belarus - April 2025

The United Nations and independent human rights experts raised concerns over a report that Belarusian authorities have sentenced at least 33 people to punitive psychiatric confinement since 2020 as retaliation for government criticism or participation in public protests. The trials of those involved were conducted in secret and the psychiatric confinement is typically indefinite. Twenty-five of the 33 people remain in confinement, but no further information concerning their whereabouts is available. Political prisoners in such facilities can be forced to take medication or be subjected to electric shocks. The secrecy surrounding the cases means it is not possible to determine with certainty whether these transfers to close medical facilities were made for political or medical reasons. Belarus has used psychiatric confinement as a punishment for political activism in the past, but the report documents how the practice has been accelerated since the 2020 uprisings against President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. 

Sources: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Viasna, International Centre for Civil Initiatives