Belarus

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

News & Updates

Susan Corke delivered a statement on freedom of expression at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)'s Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM), Europe's largest annual human rights and democracy conference, which is organized every year by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

 

The absence of internationally accepted criteria to define the term “political prisoner” is a critical problem that allows repressive regimes to hide behind ambiguity and hampers the ability of those advocating on prisoners’ behalves. Human rights defenders from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine addressed this issue at a two-day working session, organized by Freedom House and the Belarusian Human Rights House on August 27-28, 2012, in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Lukashenka regime’s decision to force Sweden to close its embassy in Belarus for its support of human rights and alleged contact with opposition groups is the most recent example of the outrageous behavior of the government in Minsk and underscores the need to adopt stronger measures against Europe’s last dictatorship. Freedom House and the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) urge other European countries to show solidarity with Sweden in its efforts to draw attention to human rights abuses in Belarus.

Freedom House finds unacceptable the expulsion of the Swedish Ambassador to Belarus on August 3. Ambassador Stefan Ericsson may have been expelled in what many regard as Lukashenka’s retaliation for the teddy bear drop incident that took place on July 4.

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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