It destroys part of Belarusian culture. We are losing books, ideas, words that remain in prisons and may never make it out to their readers. It violates the right to freedom of speech and expression for those behind bars. Both people and books must be freed.

More and more often we learn that manuscripts are being confiscated from imprisoned writers in Belarusian prisons. Among those who has told us about this are former political prisoners Uładzimir Mackievič, Hienadź Fiadynič, Ihar Karniej, and others.

The philosopher and essayist Uładzimir Mackievič, released on September 11th together with other political prisoners, gave his first interview, in which he raised an important issue:

Manuscripts are being confiscated from imprisoned writers...

Both people and books must be freed!

👉 You can learn more about the current state of Belarusian books here: bannedbooks.penbelarus.org/en

In 2024, at least 117 cultural figures were subjected to criminal prosecution, 88 people who were convicted.

In 2024, violations of conditions in the places of incarceration were recorded in relation to 40 individuals. This is undoubtedly only a fraction of the persecution that cultural figures imprisoned for political reasons face daily.

Total isolation (incommunicado) means a prisoner is cut off from the outside world: no contact with family, friends, lawyers, or fellow inmates.

Violations of the right to a fair trial and the designation of culture-related materials (or social media pages of cultural figures) as “extremist” were the most common violations observed by the monitoring team.

At least 1348 violations of cultural rights and human rights of cultural figures occurred in Belarus in 2024.