Statement by a Human Rights Coalition on the Arbitrary Invalidation of Passports of Citizens of the Republic of Belarus

In light of emerg­ing reports that the author­i­ties have arbi­trar­i­ly declared invalid the pass­ports of for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­ers who were forcibly expelled from Belarus after their release in Sep­tem­ber and Decem­ber 2025, we, a coali­tion of Belaru­sian human rights orga­ni­za­tions, state the fol­low­ing:

The pro­tec­tion of its cit­i­zens is a fun­da­men­tal func­tion and duty of the state. Arti­cle 10 of the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Repub­lic of Belarus guar­an­tees cit­i­zens the pro­tec­tion and patron­age of the state both with­in Belarus and abroad. A pass­port is one of the man­i­fes­ta­tions of state sov­er­eign­ty. It con­firms the state’s guar­an­tee of pro­tec­tion for its cit­i­zens both domes­ti­cal­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly.

We empha­size that a pass­port is not mere­ly an admin­is­tra­tive doc­u­ment, but a con­fir­ma­tion of a person’s legal and social iden­ti­ty. Although the absence of a valid pass­port does not de jure result in the loss of cit­i­zen­ship, it cre­ates a sit­u­a­tion of de fac­to state­less­ness, affects human dig­ni­ty, and obstructs the exer­cise of many fun­da­men­tal rights, includ­ing the right to equal treat­ment (non-dis­crim­i­na­tion) (Arti­cle 26 of the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights; Arti­cle 22 of the Con­sti­tu­tion), the right to recog­ni­tion as a per­son before the law (Arti­cle 16 of the Covenant), the right to free­dom of move­ment (Arti­cle 12 of the Covenant), the right to pri­va­cy and fam­i­ly life (Arti­cle 17 of the Covenant), the right to mar­ry and found a fam­i­ly (Arti­cle 23 of the Covenant), and the right to prop­er­ty (Arti­cle 44 of the Con­sti­tu­tion).

Under Arti­cle 2 of the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Repub­lic of Belarus, the state is respon­si­ble to the cit­i­zen for cre­at­ing con­di­tions for the free and dig­ni­fied devel­op­ment of the indi­vid­ual. Arti­cle 59 of the Con­sti­tu­tion estab­lish­es the duty of state bod­ies, offi­cials, and oth­er per­sons entrust­ed with the per­for­mance of state func­tions to take the nec­es­sary mea­sures, with­in their com­pe­tence, to ensure and pro­tect the rights and free­doms of indi­vid­u­als.

The arbi­trary inval­i­da­tion of pass­ports of indi­vid­u­als per­se­cut­ed for polit­i­cal rea­sons is not mere­ly a refusal by the state to pro­tect its cit­i­zens, but a delib­er­ate abuse of pow­er by state bod­ies tasked with safe­guard­ing cit­i­zens’ rights. It con­sti­tutes an addi­tion­al repres­sive mea­sure (and a new prac­tice in the con­text of transna­tion­al repres­sion) against indi­vid­u­als who have already been sub­ject­ed to arbi­trary crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion and unjust pun­ish­ment for exer­cis­ing their law­ful rights and free­doms.

More­over, the very fact of forced expul­sion fur­ther exac­er­bates their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and con­sti­tutes a sep­a­rate vio­la­tion of both nation­al law and Belarus’s inter­na­tion­al legal oblig­a­tions (see the coalition’s state­ment of Decem­ber 22, 2025). The inval­i­da­tion of pass­ports (even when indi­vid­u­als do not phys­i­cal­ly pos­sess them) in addi­tion to forced expul­sion demon­strates not only the unlaw­ful­ness of such actions but also a par­tic­u­lar cyn­i­cism on the part of the author­i­ties, who seek by any avail­able means to wors­en the sit­u­a­tion, pro­long suf­fer­ing, and degrade the dig­ni­ty of those per­se­cut­ed on polit­i­cal grounds.

We remind that the refusal of the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to pro­tect their own cit­i­zens as a form of transna­tion­al repres­sion has a much broad­er scope and affects not only those who have been released and forcibly removed. Decree No. 278 “On the Pro­ce­dure for Issu­ing Doc­u­ments and Per­form­ing Actions” of Sep­tem­ber 4, 2023 (the “Pass­port Decree”) remains in force, hav­ing abol­ished cer­tain func­tions of Belaru­sian diplo­mat­ic mis­sions abroad, includ­ing the issuance and renew­al of pass­ports. As a result, thou­sands of Belaru­sian cit­i­zens, includ­ing new­born chil­dren, are left with­out basic iden­ti­ty doc­u­ments and, con­se­quent­ly, with­out the abil­i­ty to ful­ly par­tic­i­pate in social life and exer­cise a range of rights. The num­ber of such indi­vid­u­als con­tin­ues to grow.

We also con­clude that the arbi­trary inval­i­da­tion of pass­ports may be viewed as part of a state pol­i­cy involv­ing a wide­spread and sys­tem­at­ic attack against the pop­u­la­tion, as a con­tex­tu­al ele­ment of crimes against human­i­ty under the qual­i­fi­ca­tion frame­work of the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court in the con­text of the ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into the Lithuania/Belarus sit­u­a­tion.

In view of the above, we call on the author­i­ties of the Repub­lic of Belarus to:

• ful­fill their con­sti­tu­tion­al oblig­a­tions to pro­tect cit­i­zens of the Repub­lic of Belarus and to cre­ate con­di­tions for the prop­er exer­cise of their rights, with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion based on polit­i­cal beliefs or oth­er grounds, in par­tic­u­lar:
• to cease the prac­tice of arbi­trar­i­ly inval­i­dat­ing pass­ports;
• to ensure the restora­tion of the valid­i­ty of pass­ports;
• to repeal Decree No. 278 “On the Pro­ce­dure for Issu­ing Doc­u­ments and Per­form­ing Actions” of Sep­tem­ber 4, 2023, and to restore the func­tions of Belaru­sian diplo­mat­ic mis­sions abroad to issue and renew pass­ports.

We call on rep­re­sen­ta­tives of inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions and for­eign states, includ­ing those par­tic­i­pat­ing in nego­ti­a­tions on releas­es, to:

• make every pos­si­ble diplo­mat­ic effort to end prac­tices that infringe the rights of cit­i­zens of the Repub­lic of Belarus released through nego­ti­a­tions;
• make every pos­si­ble diplo­mat­ic effort to end prac­tices that infringe the rights of oth­er Belaru­sian cit­i­zens who have been left with­out valid pass­ports due to the actions of the author­i­ties, and to ensure the repeal of Decree No. 278 (the “Pass­port Decree”);
• pro­vide max­i­mum assis­tance in legal­iz­ing the sta­tus of forcibly expelled and oth­er Belaru­sian cit­i­zens who remain with­out valid pass­ports due to the actions of the Belaru­sian author­i­ties in the ter­ri­to­ries of for­eign states;
• treat these prac­tices as a form of transna­tion­al repres­sion and take them into account when assess­ing the human rights sit­u­a­tion in Belarus.

Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee

Lawtrend

Human Con­stan­ta

PEN Belarus

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Vias­na Human Rights Cen­ter

Legal Ini­tia­tive 

Barys Zvozskau Belaru­sian Human Rights House

Office for the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties

Belaru­sian Con­gress of Demo­c­ra­t­ic Trade Unions