The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has registered a complaint filed by former political prisoner and journalist Larysa Shchyrakova, who was forcibly taken from Belarus to Lithuania. This was reported on Facebook by human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka.
Shchyrakova was released under a “pardon” in September 2025, several months before the end of her sentence, and was taken out of Belarus to Lithuania without her consent. There, she received a one-year humanitarian visa.
“Belarusian legislation does not provide for the expulsion of its own citizens. There was no court decision on release, just as there was no decision on expulsion. There was no right to appeal. In fact, deprivation of liberty was terminated through forced exile,” Sudalenka wrote.
He added that Belarusian authorities are ignoring official requests regarding Shchyrakova’s legal status and her right to return home.
During her imprisonment, Shchyrakova’s mother died. Her elderly father and son remain in Belarus.
“Today, a complaint was registered with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women raising the question of whether a state can dispose of the fate of its citizens as an object of political bargaining and call exile ‘release’?
Because if forced exile becomes a mechanism, it is a threat to everyone,” Sudalenka wrote.
