{"id":21557,"date":"2026-01-16T17:02:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=21557"},"modified":"2026-02-06T10:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:37:07","slug":"hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-1-15-studzenya-2026-goda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2026\/01\/16\/hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-1-15-studzenya-2026-goda.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronicle of human rights violations in the sphere of culture (1-15 January 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"

To report a violation (including confidentially) or to correct data presented in the report, please contact us at\u00a0dapamoha@penbelarus.org\u00a0or t.me\/viadoma.<\/em><\/p>\n

As of 15 January 2026, at least 144 cultural figures, including not less than 31 writers, were not free \u2013 either imprisoned or in home confinement.<\/b><\/p>\n

Physicist and Belarusian language promoter <\/span>Viktar Ha\u016dry\u0142aviec<\/b> was sentenced to home confinement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Art manager, organiser of the Urban Myths festival, and street artist <\/span>Aleh \u0141ary\u010da\u016d<\/b> was detained in connection with a criminal case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Archivist <\/span>U\u0142adzimir Monzul<\/b> was sentenced to home confinement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photographer <\/span>Natalla Ba\u010durynskaja<\/b> was sentenced to three years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Political scientist and literary scholar, and former political prisoner <\/span>Alaksandr Fiaduta <\/b>reported the destruction of books in Penal Colony No. 15 in Mahilo\u016d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former political prisoner <\/span>Alena Hna\u016dk<\/b> reported the confiscation of manuscripts before the transfer out of the penal colony.<\/span><\/p>\n

Telegram channels about Belarusian culture \u2013 <\/span>Reform.news :: Cultural Front<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>Rodnaja historyja<\/i><\/b> \u2013 as well as the Instagram page <\/span>telebudkaby<\/i><\/b> and the YouTube channel <\/span>Telebudka<\/i><\/b>, were designated as <\/span>\u201cextremist\u201d<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
I. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers<\/b><\/h5>\n

<\/b>1.<\/strong> On 4 January, it became known that the Minsk City Court convicted physicist <\/span>Viktar Ha\u016dry\u0142aviec<\/b>, a promoter of the Belarusian language in the IT sector. He worked on the translation and integration of Ubuntu, Inkscape, and GNOME interfaces so that Belarusians could comfortably use free software in their native language. Viktar Ha\u016dry\u0142aviec was sentenced to restriction of liberty in home confinement<\/span> under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>2.<\/strong> On 9 January, it became known that <\/span>U\u0142adzimir Monzul<\/b>, Deputy Head of a department at the National Archives, was sentenced to restriction of liberty in home confinement. The Brest Regional Court convicted the archivist under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity), as well as Part 1 of Article 130 (incitement of hatred and discord).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>3.<\/strong> On 12 January, it became known that art manager, organiser of the Urban Myths festival, and street artist <\/span>Aleh \u0141ary\u010da\u016d<\/b> had been detained in connection with a criminal case. Human rights defenders reported that he was detained in late November and transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in December. In 2022, Aleh \u0141ary\u010da\u016d was sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>4.<\/strong> On 13 January, the Homiel Regional Court sentenced photographer <\/span>Natalla Ba\u010durynskaja<\/b> to three years\u2019 imprisonment for \u201cfinancing extremist activity\u201d under Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code. <\/span>Natalla Ba\u010durynskaja<\/b> photographed birds and was well known within the now-liquidated amateur ornithologists\u2019 organisation <\/span>Ahova Ptu\u0161ak Ba\u0107ka\u016d\u0161\u010dyny<\/span><\/i> (Protection of Homeland\u2019s Birds).<\/span><\/p>\n

II. Destruction of banned books in places of incarceration<\/b><\/h5>\n

<\/b>1.<\/strong> On 8 January, political scientist and literary scholar <\/span>Alaksandr Fiaduta<\/b>, Doctor of Humanities, who was released on 13 December 2025 and deported from Belarus as part of a group of 123 people, spoke about the destruction of books in Penal Colony No. 15 in Mahilo\u016d. He said:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cFirst, the books by <\/span>Svetlana Alexievich<\/b><\/em> disappeared. There were not many of them, mostly her early works \u2013 <\/span>War\u2019s Unwomanly Face<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Zinky Boys<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Chernobyl Prayer<\/span><\/i>. Then the books by Russian \u2018foreign agents\u2019 disappeared \u2013 <\/span>Akunin, Pelevin, Ulitskaya, Dmitry Bykov<\/b><\/em> (fortunately, I managed to read his <\/span>Orthography<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Ostromov<\/span><\/i>). The entire shelves of books on philosophy and psychology were confiscated. <\/span>Viktor Frankl<\/b><\/em>\u2019s memoirs disappeared (probably so that the fate of a psychologist in a concentration camp would not remind us of our own fates). Of course, books in foreign languages also disappeared, even though there were English-language books, including <\/span>Hemingway<\/b><\/em> and <\/span>Conan Doyle<\/b><\/em>, dating back to Soviet times. I still do not know where they took them. One of the \u2018experienced\u2019 representatives of the prisoners\u2019 \u2018nomenklatura\u2019, the so-called \u2018goats\u2019, secretly told me that the books are burned in the boiler house of our colony.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>2.<\/strong> On 13 January, a former political prisoner who had served his sentence in Penal Colony No. 15 in Mahilo\u016d and been released after completing his term and left Belarus, told human rights defenders about the destruction of books. He said, \u201cIn 2024, the administration took all prisoners\u2019 personal books away. Everything was brought to the library, sorted, and about 70% were destroyed immediately. The books were transported to the boiler house in potato sacks and burned. They collected three sacks and burned them. Almost all educational literature was banned. Only fiction remained. The Polish language was considered hostile \u2013 if you had a textbook, you would be called in for an \u2018interesting conversation\u2019, and you could be given ten days in punitive confinement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

III. Confiscation of manuscripts from political prisoner writers<\/b><\/h5>\n

On 12 January, former political prisoner <\/span>Alena Hna\u016dk<\/b> reported the confiscation of her manuscripts when she was transferred from the penal colony in the settlement of Zare\u010d\u010da, Re\u010dyca District. She said: \u201cI asked: \u2018Where are my letters, archives, notes, copies of court verdicts?\u2019 \u2013 \u2018You are not allowed to take papers out!\u2019 I started explaining that this violated the law. But it was clear that they were following orders. So, they did not return any of my papers at all. The only thing I took out of the colony was a small New Testament booklet that one of the convicted women gave me, and I kept that too.\u201d <\/span>Alena Hna\u016dk, aged 68, spent three years and eleven months in prison \u2013 from 11 January 2022 to 13 December 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

IV. <\/b>Designation of cultural initiatives and organisations\u2019 social media as \u201cextremist\u201d<\/b><\/h5>\n

<\/b>1.<\/strong> On 5 January 2026, the Pinsk District and City Court (Brest Region) designated the Telegram channel about Belarusian culture <\/span>Reform.news :: Cultural Front<\/i><\/b> as <\/span>\u201cextremist\u201d<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>2.<\/strong> On 5 January 2026, the <\/span>Pinsk District and City Court (Brest Region)<\/span> designated the Telegram channel <\/span>Rodnaja historyja<\/i><\/b> as <\/span>\u201cextremist\u201d<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>3.<\/strong> On <\/span>5 January 2026, the Pinsk District and City Court (Brest Region)<\/span> designated the Instagram page <\/span>telebudkaby<\/i><\/b> and the YouTube channel <\/span>Telebudka<\/i><\/b> as <\/span>\u201cextremist\u201d<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Siarhiej Budkin<\/b>, head of the Belarusian Council for Culture, runs the project.<\/span><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To report a violation (including confidentially) or to correct data presented in the report, please contact us at\u00a0dapamoha@penbelarus.org\u00a0or t.me\/viadoma. As of 15 January 2026, at least 144 cultural figures, including not less than 31 writers, were not free \u2013 either imprisoned or in home confinement. Physicist and Belarusian language promoter Viktar Ha\u016dry\u0142aviec was sentenced to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":21560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-21557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-right","tag-chronicle","tag-hronika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21645,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21557\/revisions\/21645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}