Release into Exile: The Expulsion of Imprisoned Journalists from Belarus

Secur­ing the release of jour­nal­ists impris­oned for their pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties is a mat­ter of fun­da­men­tal impor­tance. How­ev­er, recent prac­tice has shown that this process does not always serve the inter­ests of the detainees them­selves — par­tic­u­lar­ly when it is con­di­tioned on their forced expul­sion from Belarus. Down­load PDF.

This report scru­ti­nizes the prac­tice of forcibly expelling jour­nal­ists and blog­gers fol­low­ing their release from deten­tion in Belarus, assess­es the legal­i­ty of these actions under nation­al and inter­na­tion­al law, and expos­es the chal­lenges they are forced to con­front in exile.

The report is struc­tured in five parts.

The first part explains how the expul­sion of impris­oned jour­nal­ists and blog­gers has been car­ried out in prac­tice, estab­lish­ing the fac­tu­al record for the legal analy­sis that fol­lows.

The sec­ond part ana­lyzes the actions of the Belaru­sian author­i­ties under inter­na­tion­al crim­i­nal law. It argues that the expul­sion of jour­nal­ists and blog­gers amounts to crimes against human­i­ty, name­ly depor­ta­tion and per­se­cu­tion, with­in the mean­ing of Arti­cle 7 of the Rome Statute. It also con­sid­ers the prospects for action by the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court, par­tic­u­lar­ly in light of its ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into the  Lithuania/Belarus sit­u­a­tion.

The third part ana­lyzes nation­al leg­is­la­tion reg­u­lat­ing the ear­ly release of con­vict­ed per­sons before they have ful­ly served their sen­tences, as well as the expul­sion of indi­vid­u­als from the ter­ri­to­ry of the Repub­lic of Belarus. It ques­tions whether any of these legal pro­vi­sions can legit­i­mate­ly be applied to the expul­sion of impris­oned jour­nal­ists and blog­gers and, if so, whether they have been prop­er­ly fol­lowed in prac­tice. 

The fourth part exam­ines the expul­sion of impris­oned jour­nal­ists and blog­gers through the lens of inter­na­tion­al human rights stan­dards. It iden­ti­fies vio­la­tions of the fol­low­ing rights: free­dom of move­ment (Arti­cle 12 of the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights); the right to pri­va­cy, fam­i­ly life, home and cor­re­spon­dence (Arti­cle 17); free­dom of expres­sion (Arti­cle 19); the right not to be sub­ject­ed to tor­ture or to cru­el, inhu­man or degrad­ing treat­ment or pun­ish­ment (Arti­cle 7); the right to non-dis­crim­i­na­tion and equal pro­tec­tion of the law (Arti­cles 2 and 26); the right to pro­tec­tion of the fam­i­ly, includ­ing the right to mar­ry and to found a fam­i­ly (Arti­cle 23); the child’s right to be reg­is­tered imme­di­ate­ly after birth and to acquire a nation­al­i­ty (Arti­cle 7 of the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child); and the right to social secu­ri­ty, includ­ing social insur­ance (Arti­cle 9 of the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Eco­nom­ic, Social and Cul­tur­al Rights).

The fifth part focus­es on the chal­lenges faced by jour­nal­ists and blog­gers in exile: the need to secure legal res­i­dence sta­tus, sep­a­ra­tion from their fam­i­lies, eco­nom­ic vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, bar­ri­ers to con­tin­u­ing their pro­fes­sion­al work in jour­nal­ism, the need for med­ical and psy­cho­log­i­cal sup­port, dif­fi­cul­ties with lan­guage inte­gra­tion, restric­tions on prop­er­ty rights in Belarus, and lim­it­ed access to admin­is­tra­tive pro­ce­dures.  These issues were iden­ti­fied through the work of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), includ­ing a sur­vey con­duct­ed as part of a broad­er needs assess­ment among jour­nal­ists and media pro­fes­sion­als released from deten­tion.

The report con­cludes with rec­om­men­da­tions addressed to for­eign states, the Repub­lic of Belarus, as well as media actors and civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions.

Read the full report. Download PDF