“Black Week” for Belarusian NGOs

The Guardian published an article about repressions against Belarusian non-governmental organizations. In the last 10 days alone, more than 60 searches have been carried out; raids and arrests of human rights defenders, journalists, and activists continue.

“This is a total purge of civil society. NGOs have always been under pressure in Belarus, but these raids, this wave of arrests and seizures have never been seen before,” said Maryna Varabei, founder of Freeunion.online.

The Belarusian authorities have initiated the liquidation of more than 40 human rights and non-governmental organizations. Among them are the charitable platform IMENA (NAMES), the office for the rights of people with disabilities, the Press Club, the IPM business school, and the free Belarusian language course provider “Mova Nanova”. Some of the organizations have been working in Belarus for more than 10 years, and government agencies have cooperated with many of them for more than one year.

Check here for a complete list of liquidated organizations and what they used to work on.