A group of independent experts, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, has presented a report reaffirming and expanding upon earlier findings: the actions of the Belarusian authorities following the 2020 elections may be classified as crimes against humanity, including unlawful imprisonment and persecution. The document was published during the 58th session of the Human Rights Council and covers the period from May 2020 to December 2024.
The report emphasises that the violations were widespread and systematic, forming part of an organised attack against the civilian population.
“The crimes were committed as part of a pattern of organized conduct, following instructions, encouragement and endorsement by high-level officials, and implemented by individual perpetrators," the document states.
Who conducted the investigation and in what way
The group of three independent experts — Karinna Moskalenko (Russia), Susan Bazilli (Canada), and Monika Platek (Poland) — was established by the Human Rights Council in 2024. Their mandate was to identify, document, and analyse serious human rights violations in Belarus. (Our project has previously reported on the establishment of this expert group.)
It is important to understand the value of this document:
It is important to understand that this report is not a court decision, nor does it automatically constitute criminal charges or a list of formal accusations in ongoing legal proceedings. However, the facts and findings — for example, regarding the lack of effective remedies in Belarus — can be used by other human rights bodies and mechanisms. The future of the expert group and its mandate will reportedly be decided on 4 April. Regardless, the report itself now stands as an established fact, independent of the Belarusian authorities’ rejection of its findings.
Although the Belarusian authorities refused to cooperate, the experts interviewed 192 witnesses and collected and verified more than 2,200 pieces of evidence, including court documents, photographs, videos, and medical reports.
An Organised Policy of Repression
The expert group concluded that there was a centralised, state-driven policy aimed at suppressing dissent and enforcing loyalty. According to the findings, the following actors were involved:
Crimes Against Humanity: Unlawful Imprisonment and Persecution
The experts identified two main crimes against humanity committed by the authorities: unlawful imprisonment and politically motivated persecution.
Mass arrests were carried out without legal grounds. When searches failed to yield results, police fabricated charges under Articles 24.3 and 19.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences (“disobedience” and “minor hooliganism”) to justify detaining people.
Pre-trial detention was used not as a legitimate legal measure but as a form of punishment and intimidation. Courts failed to assess the validity of the charges, disregarded defence arguments, and routinely rejected appeals. Lawyers had no real tools at their disposal: their presence made no difference to the outcome of the proceedings.
“The Group found ample evidence of the complicity of courts at all levels in the repression of dissent and concludes that there are no available domestic remedies to challenge arbitrary detention and all other violations against persons deprived of liberty.”
An additional method of persecution involved isolating court proceedings from public scrutiny. In 2024, an observer was detained and charged with “facilitating extremist activities” simply for attempting to monitor trials. Other visitors were stopped outside court buildings and had their phones searched.
Systematic Torture and Psychological Pressure
The report documents the routine use of torture, particularly in facilities operated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK). Detainees were subjected to hours of violence: they were beaten with hands, feet, and batons, and subjected to electric shocks, sometimes after being doused with water to intensify the pain. Torture often took place in the presence of senior officials, and in at least one case, directly inside the central headquarters of GUBOPiK in Minsk.
Victims sustained serious injuries — burns, hematomas, fractures — yet none of these incidents were recorded by police, courts, or medical personnel.
The purpose of the torture was to force detainees to reveal phone passwords, extract confessions or information, or to punish them for participating in protests or for perceived "disloyalty."
Harsh Conditions for Political Prisoners
Individuals detained for political reasons were held in conditions designed to cause psychological and physical breakdown: sleep deprivation, lack of mattresses and bedding, exposure to extreme cold or heat, forced standing, nighttime awakenings, and 24-hour lighting.
The group also documented four deaths of detainees in 2024, at least two of which were linked to the denial of medical care. None of these deaths were properly investigated.
Repression of Lawyers and Trials in Absentia
Lawyers representing political prisoners were targeted: their licenses were revoked, criminal cases were brought against them, and their professional activities were placed under the control of the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the country was left with virtually no lawyers willing to defend clients in political cases.
The group also recorded a surge in trials in absentia against those who had fled the country: in 2024, there were at least 87 such cases — four times more than in 2023. Defendants were sentenced to long prison terms and heavy fines without access to legal counsel. Judgments were not published, making appeals impossible.
Since early 2020, up to 600,000 persons have left Belarus, many of whom faced persecution, surveillance, and threats of being separated from their children.
International Qualification: Crimes Against Humanity
"The Group has reasonable grounds to believe that some of the human rights violations documented in this report constitute international crimes..."
"...they were committed intentionally as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a segment of the civilian population of Belarus, and the perpetrators were aware of the attack and their role in it."
The experts stress that these abuses were not isolated acts of excess but part of a state system: organised, directed, encouraged from the top, and aimed at eradicating dissent.
Recommendations: Release, Investigate, Prosecute
The expert group calls on the Belarusian authorities to:
Particular attention is given to the issue of accountability. The group urges the international community to:
The report emphasises that the violations were widespread and systematic, forming part of an organised attack against the civilian population.
“The crimes were committed as part of a pattern of organized conduct, following instructions, encouragement and endorsement by high-level officials, and implemented by individual perpetrators," the document states.
Who conducted the investigation and in what way
The group of three independent experts — Karinna Moskalenko (Russia), Susan Bazilli (Canada), and Monika Platek (Poland) — was established by the Human Rights Council in 2024. Their mandate was to identify, document, and analyse serious human rights violations in Belarus. (Our project has previously reported on the establishment of this expert group.)
It is important to understand the value of this document:
- First, this is not a private opinion expressed by the experts. The group operated under an official mandate (you can find out more about UN special procedures and other human rights protection bodies in this article), and the competence of the expert group — and their authority to establish facts and present findings — derives from that mandate, which was approved by a majority of the UN Human Rights Council. Previous similar findings were made under a different, less powerful mandate. (You can read more about the earlier report and mandate in our article.)
- Second, this is the first time that crimes against humanity committed by the Belarusian authorities have been documented in such detail, with such a thorough legal basis, and at such a high level of official recognition.
- Third, the report is highly detailed, including the identification of specific state bodies involved in the commission of crimes against humanity.
It is important to understand that this report is not a court decision, nor does it automatically constitute criminal charges or a list of formal accusations in ongoing legal proceedings. However, the facts and findings — for example, regarding the lack of effective remedies in Belarus — can be used by other human rights bodies and mechanisms. The future of the expert group and its mandate will reportedly be decided on 4 April. Regardless, the report itself now stands as an established fact, independent of the Belarusian authorities’ rejection of its findings.
Although the Belarusian authorities refused to cooperate, the experts interviewed 192 witnesses and collected and verified more than 2,200 pieces of evidence, including court documents, photographs, videos, and medical reports.
An Organised Policy of Repression
The expert group concluded that there was a centralised, state-driven policy aimed at suppressing dissent and enforcing loyalty. According to the findings, the following actors were involved:
- Police forces and their special units (OMON, SOBR, Alpha, Almaz, SHTORM),
- The Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (GUBOPiK),
- The Investigative Committee, the KGB, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and courts at all levels,
- Correctional institutions,
- The Ministry of Justice (editor's note: this likely refers to the destruction of the independence of the legal profession and the creation of a chilling atmosphere for lawyers representing political prisoners),
- Local authorities,
- And state-owned and state-controlled media outlets.
Crimes Against Humanity: Unlawful Imprisonment and Persecution
The experts identified two main crimes against humanity committed by the authorities: unlawful imprisonment and politically motivated persecution.
Mass arrests were carried out without legal grounds. When searches failed to yield results, police fabricated charges under Articles 24.3 and 19.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences (“disobedience” and “minor hooliganism”) to justify detaining people.
Pre-trial detention was used not as a legitimate legal measure but as a form of punishment and intimidation. Courts failed to assess the validity of the charges, disregarded defence arguments, and routinely rejected appeals. Lawyers had no real tools at their disposal: their presence made no difference to the outcome of the proceedings.
“The Group found ample evidence of the complicity of courts at all levels in the repression of dissent and concludes that there are no available domestic remedies to challenge arbitrary detention and all other violations against persons deprived of liberty.”
An additional method of persecution involved isolating court proceedings from public scrutiny. In 2024, an observer was detained and charged with “facilitating extremist activities” simply for attempting to monitor trials. Other visitors were stopped outside court buildings and had their phones searched.
Systematic Torture and Psychological Pressure
The report documents the routine use of torture, particularly in facilities operated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK). Detainees were subjected to hours of violence: they were beaten with hands, feet, and batons, and subjected to electric shocks, sometimes after being doused with water to intensify the pain. Torture often took place in the presence of senior officials, and in at least one case, directly inside the central headquarters of GUBOPiK in Minsk.
Victims sustained serious injuries — burns, hematomas, fractures — yet none of these incidents were recorded by police, courts, or medical personnel.
The purpose of the torture was to force detainees to reveal phone passwords, extract confessions or information, or to punish them for participating in protests or for perceived "disloyalty."
Harsh Conditions for Political Prisoners
Individuals detained for political reasons were held in conditions designed to cause psychological and physical breakdown: sleep deprivation, lack of mattresses and bedding, exposure to extreme cold or heat, forced standing, nighttime awakenings, and 24-hour lighting.
The group also documented four deaths of detainees in 2024, at least two of which were linked to the denial of medical care. None of these deaths were properly investigated.
Repression of Lawyers and Trials in Absentia
Lawyers representing political prisoners were targeted: their licenses were revoked, criminal cases were brought against them, and their professional activities were placed under the control of the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the country was left with virtually no lawyers willing to defend clients in political cases.
The group also recorded a surge in trials in absentia against those who had fled the country: in 2024, there were at least 87 such cases — four times more than in 2023. Defendants were sentenced to long prison terms and heavy fines without access to legal counsel. Judgments were not published, making appeals impossible.
Since early 2020, up to 600,000 persons have left Belarus, many of whom faced persecution, surveillance, and threats of being separated from their children.
International Qualification: Crimes Against Humanity
"The Group has reasonable grounds to believe that some of the human rights violations documented in this report constitute international crimes..."
"...they were committed intentionally as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a segment of the civilian population of Belarus, and the perpetrators were aware of the attack and their role in it."
The experts stress that these abuses were not isolated acts of excess but part of a state system: organised, directed, encouraged from the top, and aimed at eradicating dissent.
Recommendations: Release, Investigate, Prosecute
The expert group calls on the Belarusian authorities to:
- Release all political prisoners;
- End the abuse of anti-terrorism and anti-extremism legislation;
- Ensure the genuine independence of the judiciary and the legal profession;
- Immediately cease the use of torture and thoroughly investigate all instances of ill-treatment;
- End the practice of trials in absentia and guarantee the procedural rights of those who have fled the country.
Particular attention is given to the issue of accountability. The group urges the international community to:
- Use mechanisms of universal jurisdiction to initiate criminal proceedings;
- Increase sanctions and diplomatic pressure;
- Support civil society and human rights defenders, including those in exile.
