Chronicle of human rights violations in the sphere of culture (15-31 August 2026)

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As of 31 August 2026, at least 125 cultural figures, including at least 22 writers, were either imprisoned or under home confinement. The number of banned books remained at 375.

A new politically motivated criminal case was opened in absentia against Aleś Bialacki.

Photographer Alena Taleniec was convicted in a politically motivated criminal case.

An in-absentia, politically motivated criminal case was opened against musician Vadzim Dubojski.

Love Is, an art book by political prisoner Nasta Kuchta, was designated “extremist material”.

The Technałohija publishing house was designated an “extremist organisation”.

The Telegram channel of the human rights initiative “NO to the Death Penalty” was designated “extremist”.

A court in Belarus designated the online resources on Stalinist repression “Chajsy – Viciebsk Kurapaty” as “extremist information products”.

The song “Nomiera” by the band LSP was designated “extremist”.

A share of an apartment in Viciebsk, where civic activist, writer, and former political prisoner Pavieł Sieviaryniec is registered, was seized.

I. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers

1. On 18 August, it became known that a new politically motivated criminal case had been opened in absentia against human rights defender, writer, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and former political prisoner Aleś Bialacki. On 5 August, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus placed Bialacki on its wanted list, and his details subsequently appeared in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs database. The grounds given for placing him on the wanted list were simply a “criminal case”, without specifying the relevant article of the Criminal Code.

2. On 21 August, it became known that the Minsk City Court had convicted photographer Alena Taleniec in a politically motivated criminal case under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activities). She was sentenced to restriction of freedom under home confinement. Taleniec had been held in pre-trial detention since February 2026.

3. On 26 August, it became known that the Investigative Committee had opened a politically motivated criminal case in absentia against musician Vadzim Dubojski for participating in the peaceful mass protests of 2020. Dubojski is a guitarist and member of the hardcore punk band Vagitta. In August 2020, he was detained in Brest and beaten. Fleeing politically motivated persecution, he left for Russia in October 2020, where he was detained at the request of the Belarusian authorities and held in Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 3 in Belgorod. He was not extradited to Belarus following an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights and subsequently left Russia.

II. Repression in the book sector

1. On 17 August, it became known that Love Is (2024), an art book by political prisoner Nasta Kuchta, had been designated “extremist material”. The book brings together her drawings made in the penal colony and her short stories. Kuchta was detained on 17 February 2022. On 11 November 2022, the Minsk City Court sentenced her in a politically motivated case to five years in a minimum-security penal colony.

2. On 20 August, it became known that the Technaohija publishing house had been designated an “extremist organisation”. The Minsk City Economic Court issued the ruling on 10 June, and the publishing house was added to the List of Organisations, Formations, and Self-Employed Entrepreneurs Involved in Extremist Activities on 20 August. In April, the Ministry of Information suspended Technalohija’s certificate authorising it to distribute printed publications. Established in 1988, the publishing house specialised in academic, reference, educational and literary publications. In February, Technalohija announced that it was suspending its operations.

III. Conditions in places of incarceration

On 31 August, civic activist, writer and former political prisoner Pavieł Sieviaryniec described in a Facebook post the conditions in punishment and disciplinary cells, where basic hygiene items are prohibited:

“When you spend months in concrete boxes where everything is forbidden, cutting your nails becomes a serious problem. No scissors. No nail clippers. No blades. No razors. Concrete dust and dirt get under your nails. And after a month, two or three, your claws grow – you can imagine how long. So how do you cut your nails? You don’t. I know some people bite their nails. I tried, but it wasn’t for me. In the disciplinary cells at Akrescina, I worked out how to file my nails down against metal screws. Sometimes I scraped my fingers until they bled, but at least I didn’t have the feeling that I was an animal locked inside a concrete sack. In the punishment cells in Škłoŭ or the closed prison in Hrodna, I couldn’t find screws like that, so I had to grind the nails on one or several fingers against the concrete or the cement between the tiles. It takes a long time and requires patience – but, as they say, at least you can see the result.”

IV. Social media of historical, cultural and human rights initiatives designated as “extremist”

1. On 19 August 2026, the Łojeŭ District Court designated the Telegram channel of the human rights initiative “NO to the Death Penalty” as “extremist”. The initiative used non-fiction literature, documentary film and visual art in its activities.

2. On 25 August, the Pieršamajski District Court of Viciebsk designated the online resources documenting Stalinist repression near Viciebsk as “extremist information products”. These included the “Chajsy – Viciebsk Kurapaty” Telegram channel and its pages on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. Chajsy is a village in the Viciebsk district where mass executions took place in the 1930s and 1940s. “Chajsy – Viciebsk Kurapaty” is a civic initiative whose participants have worked to commemorate the victims of Stalinist repression.

V. Musical works designated as “extremist”

On 24 August, a court in Navapołack ruled to designate the song “Nomiera” by the band LSP as “extremist”.

VІ. Cultural figures’ social media designated as “extremist”

On 17 August, the Ministry of Information added the Facebook account of poet, performer and historical costume reenactor Kaciaryna Vadanosava to the list of “extremist materials”.

VІІ. Transnational repression

On 18 August, it became known that authorities had seized a share of the apartment in Viciebsk where civic activist, writer and former political prisoner Pavieł Sieviaryniec was registered. Such measures are imposed when criminal proceedings have been initiated against an individual. A new criminal case was opened against Sieviaryniec over his participation in the Freedom Day celebrations on 25 March 2026.

Disclaimer: Belarusian personal names and proper names

Personal names

Personal names and surnames in this text are rendered using the traditional Belarusian Latin alphabet Łacinka. We also provide their equivalents according to the current Instruction on the Transliteration of Surnames and Given Names of Citizens of the Republic of Belarus. Where direct access to official identity documents is unavailable, the transliterated forms of names may differ from the spellings used in official passport records.

Toponyms

Geographical names in this text are rendered using the traditional Belarusian Latin alphabet Łacinka. We also provide their equivalents according to the current Instruction on Rendering the Names of Geographical Features from Belarusian and Russian into Other Languages and on Transliteration of the Names of Geographical Features into the Latin Alphabet.

Proper names of organisations, projects, etc. 

The names of Belarusian organisations, projects and similar entities in this text are rendered using the traditional Belarusian Latin alphabet Łacinka.