Human Rights in Belarus Today: Political Prisoners and the Ongoing Crackdown

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission

Hearing Notice

Human Rights in Belarus Today:  Political Prisoners and the Ongoing Crackdown

Tuesday, February 3, 2025

2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Room: 2255

Rayburn House Office Building 

Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing on the human rights situation in Belarus. Since 2020, the Government of Belarus — a dictatorship led by Alexander Lukashenko for more than 30 years — has been engaged in an ongoing crackdown on democratic opposition. Yet even as this repression has continued, Belarusian authorities have, since 2025, released 123 political prisoners, in connection with diplomatic engagement involving the Trump administration.

The government crackdown intensified in 2020 in response to mass peaceful protests against widespread electoral fraud in that year’s presidential election. In that contest, opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya gained broad popular support, but the authorities nevertheless declared Lukashenko the winner.

According to the Viasna Human Rights Center, a Belarusian nongovernmental organization, since the 2020 election protests more than 50,000 people have been subjected to political arrest or detention, and 4,060 individuals have been recognized as political prisoners. The UN Human Rights Office estimated in 2024 that up to 300,000 people had fled Belarus since 2020, including Tsikhanouskaya. During this period, Belarusian authorities have further tightened restrictions on the exercise of fundamental human rights and freedoms.

Beginning in July 2024, Belarusian authorities initiated a series of pardons, freeing more than 300 prisoners, according to human rights reporting. The Trump administration has engaged diplomatically in support of these releases, including by relaxing certain sanctions on Belarusian potash exports. Those freed include U.S. citizen Yuri Zenkovich and Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In June 2025, opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski was released after five years of imprisonment, along with other prominent prisoners such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski (whose case was highlighted in the Commission’s Defending Freedoms Project). Despite these developments, more than 1,100 political prisoners remain incarcerated, and the Belarusian democracy movement continues to operate largely in exile.

Witnesses will discuss the government of Belarus’s human rights abuses, the U.S. government response, and offer recommendations for Congress. 

• Siarhei Tsikhanouski, Former Political Prisoner
• Dzianis Kuchynski, Head of International Affairs Department and Diplomatic Advisor to the President-elect of Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
• Vytis Jurkonis, Director of Freedom House in Lithuania

The hearing will be held in person and is open to Members of Congress, congressional staff, the interested public, and the media. The hearing will be livestreamed via the Commission website. For any questions, please contact Mark Milosch (for Co-Chair Smith) or Todd Stein (for Co-Chair McGovern).

Sincerely,

/s/

                Chris Smith                                                     James P. McGovern

                Member of Congress                                     Member of Congress

                Co-Chair, TLHRC                                            Co-Chair, TLHRC