Belarus: UN Experts Deplore Inhumane Treatment of Women in Detention

Belarus: UN Experts Deplore Inhumane Treatment of Women in Detention

Women prisoners are reportedly subject to arbitrary punishment, including solitary confinement and incommunicado detention without contact with their children.

Independent human rights experts* have expressed deep concern about the lack of effective investigations into allegations of gender-based violence and ill-treatment of women in pre-trial detention centres and correctional colonies in Belarus.

“The conditions of detention for women prisoners in Belarus are appalling,” the experts said. “We call on the authorities to immediately launch effective and transparent investigations into all reported cases of abuse and ensure the protection of witnesses from retaliation.”

According to reports, staff in detention facilities, the Department of Correctional Services and the Public Prosecutor’s Office may have been complicit in covering up abuses.

The experts received reports of overcrowding in pre-trial detention centres, poor hygiene, difficulties in obtaining medical care, lack of clean or warm clothing, strip searches by both male and female prison staff and a lack of privacy when using the toilet. 

Women prisoners are reportedly subject to arbitrary punishment, including solitary confinement and incommunicado detention without contact with their children. There are also reports of widespread inter-prisoner violence in the correctional colony no. 4, one of the detention facilities, which is both tolerated and encouraged by the prison administration.

“Some abuses are due to shortcomings in Belarusian legislation, while others violate both international human rights law and domestic law,” the experts said. They cited the example of a ‘shame cage’ in the yard of the correctional colony no. 4, where women are forced to stand for hours in all weather conditions, to publicly shame them for disciplinary offences. “This type of punishment is inhuman and degrading in nature,” they said.

“Widespread gender-based violence and other ill-treatment of women detainees in Belarus is a long-standing issue,” the experts said. They referred to the 2024 report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus to the General Assembly, which indicates that the country has consistently failed to implement recommendations made by UN human rights bodies and mandates to address the ill-treatment of women for over a decade.

The experts said they are in contact with the Government of Belarus on this matter.

*The experts: Nils Muižnieks, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus; Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Laura Nyirinkindi (Chair), Claudia Flores (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Ivana Krstić, and Haina Lu, Working group on discrimination against women and girls

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. 

Courtesy: UN Human Rights Office