Laureates of the Belarusian Human Rights Community Award for 2025 Announced

Павялічыць

The 2025 Award was presented in four nominations:

• "Human Rights Defender of the Year";
• "Journalist of the Year";
• "Human Rights Campaign/Initiative of the Year";
• "Human Rights Solidarity of the Year".

"Human Rights Defender of the Year-2025"

For the first time in the award's history, votes were equally split among three nominees, and all of them became laureates.

Paviel Levinau — a human rights defender, began his activities with the Belarusian Helsinki Committee in 2000, promoting human rights at national and international levels. He is the author of 161 individual communications to the UN Human Rights Committee and actively cooperates with the HRC and special rapporteurs. In the campaign "Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty in Belarus," he promoted the standards of the right to life at all levels. He actively participated as an observer in electoral campaigns at all levels. For his human rights activities, he was repeatedly subjected to administrative and criminal prosecution. After searches on February 16, 2021, he was forced to leave Belarus but continued active human rights advocacy in exile.

Alena Masliukova — a human rights defender and environmental activist; she headed the Svetlahorsk branch of "Viasna," was one of the leaders in the struggle of Svetlahorsk residents against the bleached pulp plant, and was repeatedly subjected to searches, interrogations, and administrative fines. She participated in "Viasna" campaigns against the death penalty and for free elections, was elected to the governing body of the NGO Assembly, and after being forced to leave Belarus in 2021, she continues her human rights activities in exile; in October 2024, Alena Masliukova was заочно sentenced in Belarus to three years in a penal colony under an article on "facilitating extremist activities" for her public and human rights activism.

Tatsiana Niadbai — a writer, human rights defender, and cultural project manager. As chair of Belarusian PEN, she established systematic human rights activities, resulting in the first large-scale monitoring of human rights violations against cultural figures and cultural rights. The situation in the sphere of culture and with cultural rights is systematically recorded, analyzed, and the materials from the monitoring become a significant part of information about repression in Belarus. She advocates for culture to be a central focus for building a democratic, independent Belarus. She maintained the functioning of Belarusian PEN in exile. She founded the publishing house "Polotsk Labyrinths," one of whose focuses is human rights: published books include "Ales" (about) Ales Bialiatski, "Zekameron. Verses. Conversations" by Maksim Znak. She is the author of the poetry book "There, Behind the Wall," which also addresses issues of repression in the cultural sphere and political prisoners who are cultural figures.

"Journalist of the Year-2025"

Katsiaryna Abromchyk — since 2019, has been a journalist and human rights defender at HRC "Viasna." She covers topics such as repression in Belarus, human rights, stories of political prisoners, vulnerable groups, and international human rights protection mechanisms. She creates the "Viasna" human rights program on Belarusian Radio "Racyja" and the "Viasna pryidze" human rights podcast. In 2021, due to the persecution of colleagues, she was forced to leave Belarus to continue her human rights activities.

"Human Rights Campaign/Initiative of the Year-2025"

Campaign "Prisons have no Female Face" — within the framework of the campaign, human rights defenders and doctors thoroughly analyzed the conditions of detention for women, conducted detailed interviews with former convicts, carried out sociological research on how incarceration affected their subsequent lives, developed recommendations for the state on what should be changed, presented their findings in detail to the press and expert community, and published a collection of materials on the topic.

"Human Rights Solidarity of the Year-2025"

Volha Brytsikava — actively defended the rights of workers in Navapolack, led the independent trade union "Naftan," where she worked for 16 years. In August 2020, "Naftan" workers rallied, putting forward political demands — Volha publicly voiced them. In May 2022, she served 75 consecutive days for anti-war statements, totaling 105 days that year. In 2023, she was detained and sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony, and then an additional 3 years were added to her sentence.

The Human Rights Award for achievements in the field of human rights was established in 2008. The first laureates were human rights defender Barys Zvozskau, lawyer Tamara Sidarenka, and journalist Siamion Piechanka. Over the years since its establishment, the award has expanded and today is an award with which the Belarusian human rights community annually recognizes the Human Rights Defender of the Year, Journalist of the Year, Lawyer of the Year (until 2015), and for the first time in 2016 — Human Rights Campaign or Initiative of the Year — for contributions to the protection and promotion of human rights.

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