OHCHR Report: Incommunicado Detention Equated with Enforced Disappearance

The unedited version of the Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Situation of human rights in Belarus in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election and in its aftermath has been released. A detailed analysis of each section of the Report will be published on our website after the final version is published.

The report is based on all the information and evidence collected by the OHCHR within its mandate. In total, 657 first-hand interviews were conducted, supported by over 5,400 pieces of evidence.

Systematic violations of the due process rights and fair trial, both in administrative and criminal cases, continued according to previously established patterns. All those arrested and/or detained in 2022 and 2023 expressed concern about compliance with procedural norms and the right to a fair trial. This situation, combined with institutionalized impunity, indicates the lack of national legal remedies to challenge arbitrary detention and all subsequent violations against detained individuals. Of particular concern was the recent complete denial of access by attorneys to several well-known political prisoners serving sentences.

The OHCHR confirmed the veracity of numerous public reports that several prominent opposition figures, including Viktar Babaryka, Maryia Kalesnikava, Ihar Losik, Mikalai Statkevich, Sergei Tikhanovsky, and Maxim Znak, were held incommunicado in prisons for extended periods. Their families and lawyers were denied the opportunity to meet with them and obtain any information about their whereabouts and conditions. These cases may be equated with enforced disappearance. Some of these prisoners were only heard of when they were taken to the hospital for emergency medical treatment, causing serious concerns about their physical and mental integrity and even their lives, but they were ultimately sent back to isolation. The severe psychological suffering of family members, caused by what appears to be deliberate punitive treatment of their loved ones without even being able to ascertain whether they are alive, may be equated with torture. Additionally, after the arrest in March 2023 of six attorneys that defended these detainees and the subsequent revocation of the license of at least three of them, fear of persecution, license revocation, and criminal prosecution precludes the possibility of hiring new attorneys.

According to the Report, the number of licensed attorneys has decreased from 2,200 to 1,603 over three years. From September 2020 to December 2023, Belarusian authorities revoked the licenses of at least 131 attorneys (78 men and 53 women). Others ceased legal practice or left the country, fearing for their safety. In 2022–2023, pressure on attorneys intensified even further: in addition to license revocation and arrests, the OHCHR documented cases of administrative detention for up to 30 days, torture and cruel treatment of attorneys by employees of the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK), as well as criminal charges. As of December 31, 2023, 8 men and 2 women were subject to criminal prosecution, and 4 men and 2 women were in custody.