CIVICUS discusses civic space and the prospects for democracy in Belarus with a representative of the Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House (BHRH) who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
Established in Lithuania in 2006, BHRH supports Belarus’s human rights movement from exile, as operating within the country has become virtually impossible under President Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule. Belarus has around 1,100 political prisoners, and civil society has been forced underground or into exile. While Lukashenko has hinted his current term may be his last, tight political control and Russia’s backing offer little prospect for democratic change in the near future.
