Belarus

9.5 million people
5,830 USD GNI (PPP)
Internet:
Not Free
Press:
Not Free
Not Free

News & Updates

On the second anniversary of the violent government crackdown on peaceful post-election protests in Minsk, Belarus, Freedom House strongly reiterates its call for the unconditional release and full rehabilitation of all political prisoners.

To commemorate the two-year anniversary of the government crackdown on peaceful post-election protests in Belarus, Freedom House held an open discussion featuring three prominent Belarusian human rights defenders (pictured on left): Zhanna Litvina, Natallia Pinchuk, and Tatsiana Reviaka.

Freedom House condemns recent pressure on prominent Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski and youth leader Zmitser Dashkevich while in prison, and reiterates its call for their immediate release as well as the release of other political prisoners.

On his 50th birthday, prominent Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski continues to languish in prison on trumped up charges.  Freedom House reiterates its call for his immediate release as well as the release of all political prisoners in Belarus.

Signature Reports

Special Reports

Promise and Reversal: The Post-Soviet Landscape Twenty Years On

“Promise and Reversal: The Post-Soviet Landscape Twenty Years On,” marks the 20th anniversary of the failed Soviet coup of August 19, 1991. The retrospective essay examines the changes in the political rights and civil liberties in the former Soviet Union over the last two decades, as well as includes graphs and rankings that illustrate the region's performance in the annual Freedom House publications Freedom in the World and Freedom of the Press. The report  concludes that there is a serious and disturbing failure to embrace democratic institutions in most of the post-Soviet region.

Worst of the Worst 2011: The World's Most Repressive Societies

Freedom House has prepared this special report entitled Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies, as a companion to its annual survey on the state of global political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World. The special report provides summary country reports, tables, and graphical information on the countries that receive the lowest combined ratings for political rights and civil liberties in Freedom in the World, and whose citizens endure systematic and pervasive human rights violations.

Worst of the Worst 2007

Sudan, North Korea and Uzbekistan are prominent among the most repressive regimes in the world, according to a report released by Freedom House.  The study, “The Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies 2007,” named seventeen countries with the worst records for political rights and civil liberties, and pointed to thirteen countries which have been on the list for five years or more.

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