On the situation in Belarus, five years after the fraudulent presidential elections

B100451/2025

European Parliament resolution on the situation in Belarus, five years after the fraudulent presidential elections

(2025/2900(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Belarus,

– having regard to the UN Charter,

– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,

– having regard to the Geneva Conventions,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas following the fraudulent 2020 presidential elections and the subsequent brutal crackdown on democratic forces, civil society activists, free trade unions, independent media and peaceful protesters, which continues to this day, Parliament did not recognise the results of the election nor Aliaksandr Lukashenka as the legitimate leader and President of Belarus;

B. whereas the Lukashenka regime has intensified repression in the country since 2020, ensuring that there are no registered opposition parties or independent organisations remaining; whereas none of the past six presidential elections in Belarus have been deemed free or fair; whereas international observers, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), have accused Lukashenka of exploiting administrative powers to manipulate votes and ensure his victory;

C. whereas since the 2020 fraudulent elections, nearly 2 000 civil society groups, including non-governmental organisations and labour unions have been shut down; whereas over 40 media outlets have been recognised as ‘extremist formations’, effectively criminalising their activity in Belarus;

D. whereas while dozens of political prisoners were released in recent months, the crackdown on dissidents continues with frequent arrests and trials following on from politically motivated charges; whereas there are over 1 200 political prisoners in Belarus and a total of 4 198 persons have been recognised as political prisoners since 2020;

E. whereas torture and other ill-treatment remain commonplace in Belarusian penal institutions, with perpetrators at all levels enjoying impunity for their crimes; whereas political prisoners are known to suffer harsher treatment in custody, with high-profile prisoners often not allowed contact with their family and lawyers, forced to remain in punishment cells for extended periods and refused adequate healthcare; whereas the over 175 female political prisoners are often singled out for abuse and humiliation, including by means of a so-called shame cage in women’s penal colonies; whereas they are also routinely threatened with the loss of custody of their children and having their medical problems ignored; whereas the Belarusian authorities refuse to allow international monitors and independent observers into its prisons;

F. whereas the UN confirmed that over the past four years, several political prisoners have died in custody or shortly after being released worn down by inhumane conditions in jail; whereas these political prisoners, including Ales Pushkin and Valiantsin Shtermer, lost their lives in retaliation for exercising their civil and political rights, including the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly;

G. whereas the LGBTI+ community in Belarus continues to face harassment, including arbitrary arrests; whereas in an effort to copy Russia’s brand of discriminatory propaganda legislation, Belarus has conducted further attacks against the LGBTI+ community; whereas in 2024 Belarus updated its official definition of pornography by adding ‘non-traditional sexual relations and/or sexual behaviour’, clarifying that it included, among other things, consensual same-sex and bisexual relationships; whereas a draft law currently under consideration proposes introducing a fine or imprisonment for up to 15 days for ‘dissemination in any form of information aimed at shaping citizens’ perceptions of the attractiveness of homosexual relations, sex change, childlessness, or recognising paedophilia as acceptable’, with the inclusion of paedophilia in the same list as LGBTI+ and childlessness as a deliberate manipulation;

H. whereas on 11 September 2025, it was revealed that 52 prisoners of the Belarusian regime, who had received a presidential pardon under an agreement brokered between Belarus and the US, had been forcibly transferred to Lithuania; whereas Mikalai Statkevich refused to cross the border to Lithuania and walked back to Belarus from the neutral zone, where he was reportedly followed by masked Belarusian policemen; whereas reports later emerged in the media indicating that he had been returned to the penal colony where he had been serving his prison sentence, though the Belarusian authorities have not confirmed this; whereas this action by the Belarusian authorities has been strongly denounced by UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus Nils Muižnieks and other UN human rights experts;

I. whereas many exiled Belarusians reside in the EU; whereas restrictions on renewing Belarusian documents from outside Belarus have left exiles in legal limbo, unable to apply for residency documents or conduct any other administration that requires valid national identification;

J. whereas the EU has progressively imposed restrictive measures against Belarus following the fraudulent 2020 presidential elections, disproportionate violence against peaceful protesters, opposition representatives and journalists, and continued human rights violations; whereas these measures were last extended until 28 February 2026; whereas most recently, in July 2025, the Commission adopted new sanctions in view of Belarus’s complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine;

K. whereas on 4 April 2025, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution renewing the mandate of Nils Muižnieks, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, for a period of one year, and extending for the same period the mandate of the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, chaired by Karina Moskalenko;

L. whereas the regime in Belarus continues to aid Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, with Belarus hosting Russian troops and drones, participating in joint military drills, and allowing Russian nuclear weapons on its territory, violating non-proliferation norms;

M. whereas the Belarusian regime is actively copying the Russian state policy of destroying Ukrainian identity through systematic indoctrination and re-education of Ukrainian children; whereas human rights organisations reported 2 219 cases of forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus; whereas the Belarusian and Russian regimes are exploiting these Ukrainian children for propaganda purposes;

1. Continues to stand in solidarity with the people of Belarus; reiterates its non-recognition of the election of Aliaksandr Lukashenka as president of Belarus, and denounces the continuing repression of democratic forces, free media and civil society through politically motivated show trials and transnational repression;

2. Calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Belarus, including Maria Kalesnikava, Mikalai Statkevich, Ales Bialiatski, Andrzej Poczobut and Maksim Znak; condemns the regime in Belarus for its total disregard of human rights and of the rights to freedom of assembly and association; calls on the regime to end all forms of repression, persecution and intimidation without delay;

3. Condemns the Belarusian authorities for inhumane treatment and torture of detainees; demands that the authorities supply information about the detainees’ situation, provide necessary medical treatment and allow access to the detainees for lawyers, family members and the International Committee of the Red Cross; takes the Belarusian authorities to account for the health and well-being of all Belarusian prisoners;

4. Welcomes the recent release of political prisoners, but warns that the cycle of repression continues because although over 100 political prisoners were released through pardons this year, hundreds of new political prisoners were put behind bars;

5. Welcomes the work of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus and leader of the Belarusian democratic forces, and reiterates its support for structured cooperation with the Belarusian democratic forces, as formalised by the letter of intent signed on 3 May 2024; reaffirms its support for the United Transitional Cabinet and the Coordination Council as the democratic representatives of the people of Belarus, and commends their active participation within the EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly, including through the dedicated Working Group on Belarus; calls on the Commission and the Council to maintain and expand political, technical and financial assistance to these structures and to Belarusian civil society, media and human rights defenders;

6. Calls on the Commission, the Member States and the international community to redouble efforts to free political prisoners in Belarus; calls on the EU delegation in Minsk to follow the cases of political prisoners as closely as possible; calls for immediate and independent investigations into all deaths in custody of political prisoners since 2020; recognises the US administration’s successful efforts to free a number of political prisoners; reiterates at the same time that a normalisation of relations cannot be extorted through trade in human lives and freedom, nor as long as Belarus remains a brutal dictatorship and willing co-aggressor against Ukraine;

7. Expresses deep concern over the growing repression of the LGBTI+ community, as Belarus follows the example of Russia and Georgia in suppressing visibility of the LGBTI+ community in society, in total violation of its international obligations; urges the Belarusian authorities to discard Article 19.16 on ‘propaganda of homosexual relations, sex change, childlessness, paedophilia’ of the draft law on amending the codes on administrative violations, and to fight propaganda promoting child abuse and paedophilia without seeking to discredit LGBTI+ communities and free choice in family planning;

8. Considers the Belarusian regime to be complicit in the Russian militarisation of Ukrainian children; calls on the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation into the displacement, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children by the Belarusian regime, and to issue arrest warrants for: Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Sergey Glazyev, the secretary of state of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, Mikhail Mishustin, Russian Prime Minister and the chair of the Union State’s Council of Ministers, Dmitry Mezentsev, Russian politician and former secretary of state of the Union State, and Aliaksei Talai, the Belarusian paralympic athlete and head of the Aliaksei Talai Foundation, which has been central to the project of displacing Ukrainian children to Belarus; calls for the EU, Member States, and like-minded partners to create a single international mechanism to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children to Ukraine from Belarusian territory;

9. Reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States to simplify the procedures for those fleeing Belarus for political reasons to obtain visas and residence permits, and urges them to prepare common rules and procedures to deal with cases of statelessness and to provide support for those Belarusians residing in the EU whose identity documents are about to expire and who have no means of renewing them without returning to Belarus;

10. Calls on the Member States to ensure that the efforts to document and ensure accountability for international crimes committed by the Lukashenka regime are continued at UN level with a strengthened examination by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of the human rights situation in Belarus, by providing full support to the Group of Independent Experts on the Human Rights Situation in Belarus, and by preserving the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus for continued scrutiny over ongoing human rights violations; stresses to this end the importance of collecting evidence of potential international crimes and of providing further authoritative legal qualification under international law of continuing grave abuses with a view to advancing accountability;

11. Echoes the OHCHR recommendation for further accountability through national proceedings based on accepted principles of extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction and calls on the Member States to ensure sufficient resources for the investigation of universal jurisdiction cases;

12. Highlights the crucial role played by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus and the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus in documenting violations and maintaining international attention on the plight of political prisoners, civil society and victims of repression in Belarus; stresses the need for continued cooperation between the European Union, the United Nations, and international human rights mechanisms to ensure accountability for crimes committed by the Belarusian authorities; calls on the UN Human Rights Council to extend the mandates of both the Special Rapporteur and the Group of Independent Experts beyond 2026, in order to guarantee the uninterrupted continuation of their vital work in monitoring, reporting, and supporting future accountability processes for human rights abuses in Belarus;

13. Calls for the extension of the EU’s sanctions regime against Belarus, which is set to expire at the end of February 2026, and urges the Commission to further expand targeted sanctions against those individuals responsible for human rights abuses and the erosion of democracy and the rule of law in the country;

14. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the United Nations, the EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly, the representatives of the Belarusian democratic forces, and the authorities of Belarus.