This document is a working paper aimed at drawing attention to the growing problem of the use of transnational repression by the Lukashenka regime to suppress the voices of activists and ordinary people who were forced to leave the country as a result of persecution. iSANS plans to publish a report on the issue later in 2024.
Executive summary
Transnational repression, which occurs when states reach across borders to silence dissent by those living in exile has lately become a tool of choice for authoritarian regimes to suppress voices and activities of their critics outside their territorial jurisdiction. Belarus is currently considered to be among the top ten states practicing transnational repression. However, none of the other countries has recently taken up the strategy with as much intensity as the regime in Belarus. Increasingly intolerant of peaceful opposition, Lukashenka’s government augmented its already extensive arsenal of repressive tactics with the aim of silencing critical voices of Belarusians abroad. Minsk was responsible for 31 percent of the transnational repression incidents recorded in the world in 2021, the first year human rights researchers documented the use of transnational repression tools by the regime. It has used transnational repression to silence the dissent outside its territory long before the current crackdown. However, after the start of mass repression in the summer of 2020 and forced emigration of several hundred thousand Belarusians, including members of the opposition, participants in peaceful protests, civic activists, journalists, lawyers and other pro-democratic figures, the regime engaged in massive transborder repression.
The entire document can be read or downloaded at the link.
