Reacting to a growing number of reports that Belarusian authorities are persecuting, intimidating and targeting students and others connected to the European Humanities University (EHU) in Vilnius, Lithuania, as part of their efforts to repress dissent beyond Belarus’ borders, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:
“As the new academic year begins, the Belarusian authorities’ relentless campaign against the exiled European Humanities University has taken a disturbing new turn, intensifying its assault on the rights to education, freedom of expression and academic freedom. This campaign of intimidation is no longer confined to students and others connected to the independent Belarusian university in Lithuania. They now extend to relatives and associates in Belarus, illustrating how the authorities’ brazen repressive tactics reach far beyond the country’s borders.”
“Mounting reports show that dozens of people in Belarus are subjected to searches, interrogations, detention and threats, and forced to pressure their loved ones to quit the university and return to Belarus.
“The authorities have already designated the EHU as an ‘extremist organization’ and are increasingly targeting those associated with it. The expanding scope of these measures raises concerns that the authorities may seek to pursue further action, including through a demonstrative ‘anti-extremism’ trial involving students, graduates, staff and their relatives.
The expanding scope of these measures raises concerns that the authorities may seek to pursue further action, including through a demonstrative ‘anti-extremism’ trial involving students, graduates, staff and their relatives
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
“The Belarusian authorities must stop this campaign of persecution and remove the absurd and detrimental label of ‘extremist organizations’ from the EHU and other civil society groups. Meanwhile, the international community must make every effort to put pressure on the Belarusian government to stop its crackdown on human rights. Lithuanian authorities must also promptly and effectively investigate all allegations of human rights abuses against EHU students.”
Background
Founded in Minsk in 1992 as an independent private university, the EHU was stripped of its license by the Belarusian authorities in 2004 and forced to relocate to Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2005. On 14 April 2026, the Supreme Court of Belarus banned the EHU, designating it an “extremist organization” for allegedly “encroaching on the sovereignty of Belarus, the foundations of the constitutional order and public security.”
Between 2 and 4 June 2026, Belarusian security forces conducted coordinated searches and interrogations across the country targeting EHU affiliates and their families. Belarusian Human Rights Centre Viasna documented over 60 searches, noting that investigators were threatening individuals with “extremism”-related charges, including retrospectively, in relation to payments to the EHU dating back to 2016. Several people, including relatives of EHU students, have reportedly been briefly detained in connection with the crackdown. By 17 August, Viasna had identified at least 175 people affected by this campaign.
Former and current EHU students interviewed by the BBC described how, while in Belarus, they were threatened by State Security Committee (KGB) officers, pressured to become secret informants, detained incommunicado and interrogated. They also reported that relatives in Belarus had been threatened with criminal prosecution unless students abroad withdrew from the EHU or returned to Belarus.
The Belarusian authorities began expansively designating civil society groups as “extremist” in mid-2022. Their list includes now 376 “extremist formations and organizations,” 19 of which are groups operating abroad, including the Union of Belarusians in Britain, the Association of Belarusian Businesses Abroad, the Belarusian PEN Centre and the network of “People’s Embassies” run by exiled Belarusian political activists.