Belarus

In August 2020, President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s first and only elected president since the establishment of the office in 1994 following the post-Soviet independence, was reinstated in an election cycle plagued with allegations of corruption and illegitimacy. Hundreds of thousands of protestors participated in mass demonstrations in Minsk and other major cities across the country once the sixth term of Lukashenko’s presidency was certified. The government responded with widespread crackdowns against the peaceful protestors, many of whom were students and scholars. Police used excessive and indiscriminate force to disperse demonstrations on university campuses. At the time of the protests in 2021, the Belarusian Students' Association and Student Initiative Group collected evidence that at least 492 students had been detained and an additional 160 expelled for their protest participation.

One such student, Marfa Rabkova, was imprisoned in 2020 on a 15-year prison sentence for her nonviolent participation in documenting human rights violations on behalf of Viasno, a Belarusian human rights nonprofit organization. Viasno was founded in 1996 in response to these ongoing violations to help arrested protestors and to monitor human rights violations. According to Amnesty International, the Belarusian authorities have consistently harassed and interfered with Viasna’s efforts, particularly in the latest election cycle. Rabkova was released from prison in March 2026 as part of a wider release of 250 political prisoners in return for the partial lifting of sanctions.

Since the illegitimate election in 2020, academic freedom in Belarus has been restricted further, as the authoritarian Lukashenko regime has become even more entrenched and the outbreak of war in Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 introduced additional limits on civil rights and liberties.

Under Lukashenko, Belarus has become one of Russia’s closest allies and provided key logistical and operational support to the Russian armed forces during their invasion of Ukraine. Consequently, much of the global higher education community has employed boycotts and suspensions of cooperation with Belarusian and Russian academic institutions. This includes the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, composed of over 50 European academies, which suspended the memberships of certain Belarusian universities in March 2022. Meanwhile, the space for expression about Russia’s invasion remains extremely limited in Belarus and serves as a means for the Lukashenko government to punish its critics. In 2022, at least 20 students were expelled, detained, or imprisoned due to their anti-war speech and protest activity. Meanwhile, one lecturer was detained, and his house searched for having expressed anti-war views in class, and another scholar was denied a contract extension by the Belarusian State University, where he had taught for 20 years.

Students have been one of the most heavily impacted groups in the last 6 years. According to the Belarusian Students’ Association (BSA), student activism is currently heavily restricted in Belarus, with many student organizations, including the BSA itself, being categorized as “extremist organizations” and being forced to shut down or operate in exile. Furthermore, the role of students in university governance remains at a symbolic level only.

Faculty are no better off when it comes to political activism in opposition to the government and in support of liberal democratic rights. In May-June 2024, 18 Belarusian academics, researchers, and experts were condemned to prison, in absentia, on 10- to 11-year sentences for their work in support of the 2020 election campaign of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarusian opposition leader and politician who ran against Lukashenko in that election. According to Scholars At Risk, the baselessness of the charges raised against the scholars indicates that the sentences were likely given in retaliation for their academic work that is critical of the government.

In recent years, academic freedom in Belarus has also come under more fundamental attacks, with the government targeting research and the expression of academic views. In April of 2026, in response to a 2025 petition by the prosecutor general, the Supreme Court of Belarus declared the European Humanities University (EHU) an “extremist organization,” criminalizing all association with the university. Founded in 1992 in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, EH. Later, in 2004, it was forced to relocate to Lithuania when the government annulled its educational license. Following the recent ruling, all Belarusian students, faculty and staff associated with EHU abroad now face prison terms of up to seven years if they return to Belarus. The family homes of current Belarusian students at EHU were raided by the police and their parents were told that sending money to their children would constitute terrorism financing. The students were given 10 days to unenroll and return to Belarus. The reasoning provided for EHU’s categorization as an “extremist organization”, was that it promotes alternative interpretations of issues such as Belarusian history and democratic values, criminalizing the very essence of academic inquiry in the humanities, and therefore is fundamentally antithetical to academic freedom. Individual academics also face prosecution for having been platformed on news outlets that are declared “extremist organizations.” In 2024, Belarusian State Medical University historian Igor Melnikov was sentenced to four years in prison in 2024 for having done an interview with the news outlet Euroradio in 2022, which was declared an extremist organization only after his interview. Melnikov’s sentence was later reduced to two years, and he was released in September 2025 after having served his sentence.

Academic freedom in Belarus also suffers from more long-term problems. According to the BSA’s 2026 report on gender discrimination in Belarusian higher education prepared for the UN General Assembly, women in academia are systematically disadvantaged compared to men in Belarus as men are allocated more slots in certain programs with gender quotas, women are barred from jobs deemed to be harmful to women’s reproductive health, higher education institutions lack official sexual harassment statistics, and women are vastly underrepresented in leadership positions.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the sentencing and unjustifiable harsh treatment of Belarusian scholars, students, and civic activists, who continue to struggle for freedom and democracy. ESW remains deeply concerned about the continual violations perpetuated by the Belarusian authorities against the rights of students and academics who remain committed to justice and democracy, and we condemn the arbitrary detention and inhumane incarceration of all who exercised their civic rights and liberties by participating in peaceful democratic protests. ESW calls upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights and academic freedom to strongly protest and condemn the actions of Lukashenko’s undemocratic regime and to appeal for unjustly detained students’ immediate and unconditional release.

(Last updated August 7, 2026)

Please send appeals to the following:

The Administration of the President

Of the Republic of Belarus

Reception of Citizens and Representatives of Legal Entities

Residence of the President

38 Karl Marx Street

Minsk, Belarus

Email: contract@president.gov.by

Valentin Rybakov

Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of Belarus to UN