March 8, Pozirk. Female prisoners face tougher conditions in Belarusian prisons after the 2020 political crisis, rights defenders from the Viasna Human Rights Center have told Pozirk on International Women’s Day.
The politically-motivated persecution of regime critics that continues since 2020 in Belarus resulted in a deterioration of detention conditions, described by Viasna as inhumane both in pre-trial detention centers and prisons.
“Female political prisoners experience additional pressure: they are restricted in correspondence and receiving parcels, deprived of basic rights and labelled as ‘prone to extremism.’ Torture, gender-based violence and threats of rape have been documented. Some women are kept in complete isolation for months,” rights defenders said.
They cited overcrowded cells, a lack of access to warm water and hygiene products, forced low-paid work in harsh conditions and searches by male staff as indicative of gender-based violence.
“Women suffer not only because of political persecution, but also simply because they are women,” rights activists noted.
