The Belarusian Helsinki Committee has published the National Human Rights Index for Belarus for 2025. For the first time in seven years, the overall score did not decline compared with the previous year. However, the authors stress that this does not indicate that the situation has stabilised. Rather, they say, it reflects the effect of approaching the lower limit of the scale.
The overall index remained at 2.4 out of 10 in 2025, unchanged from the previous year. The report notes that the score had declined every year since 2019: by one point in 2019 and 2020, by 0.4 points in 2021, by 0.2 points in 2022, and by 0.1 points in both 2023 and 2024.
At the same time, the number of indicators receiving the minimum score of one out of ten increased nearly sixfold, from six in 2019 to 37 in 2025. According to the experts, this reflects the deepening of repressive practices and the continued narrowing of the space for exercising even basic human rights.
In 2025, scores declined for five rights: the right to life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the right to education, the right to social security, and the right to participate in cultural life. The sharpest deterioration was recorded in the area of cultural rights, where the indicator measuring non-discriminatory access to cultural life fell by 0.5 points, the largest single decline among all Index indicators. The report also notes that the right to education worsened across all five of its components, indicating the systemic nature of the changes.
Although the overall scores for most other rights remained formally unchanged, 98 of the 290 indicators assessed within those rights deteriorated. The authors explain that the average score for a right may remain unchanged even when a significant share of its individual components shows negative trends.
The study also identified five targeted improvements in individual indicators, including expanded vaccination against the human papillomavirus and new measures to protect the right to work for people with disabilities. However, none of these changes affected the overall scores for the corresponding rights.
The experts also note that some violations affect several rights simultaneously. As an example, they cite the forced expulsion from Belarus of pardoned political prisoners, which, according to the Index authors, negatively affected indicators relating to the right to life, liberty and security of person, the prohibition of torture, the right to a fair trial and the right to participate in cultural life.
The National Human Rights Index has been published annually since 2019. More than 35 experts contributed to the 2025 edition. The study assesses the situation using 290 quantitative indicators grouped into three categories: civil and political rights, social and economic rights, and general human rights measures. In 2024, the Index was recognised in the annual report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as an important tool for assessing the compliance of national legislation, policies and practices with international human rights standards.
