The Viasna Human Rights Centre has published new details about pressure on Volha Brytsikava in Women’s Penal Colony No. 4 in Homiel. Following one dispute with the prison administration, the former trade union leader was given seven days in a punishment cell.

Ahead of the 358th Session of the International Labour Organization, which is due to begin in Geneva on 9 November, the ILO has published a report on Belarus.

Deputy Chair of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) Siarhei Antusevich took part in the Roll Call for Freedom ceremony, held on 30 October at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to mark the International Day of Political Prisoners.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya spoke at the opening of the conference *Ireland–Belarus: National and Cultural Identities*, which is taking place in Dublin. On the folder she carried at the event was a portrait of political prisoner Vatslau Areshka, an activist of the independent REP trade union.

On 21 October, an off-site court hearing was held at the Minsk State College of Trade and Commerce in a civil case seeking reimbursement of state expenditure on the training of a young specialist.

In September 2026, following another round of talks in Minsk involving US special envoy John Cole, a group of 25 political prisoners were released. All of them were taken to Lithuania.

The Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) has joined a joint statement by a coalition of human rights organisations assessing the continuing political repression in Belarus.

A new report dated 14 September 2026 by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Nils Muižnieks, gives particular attention to labour relations. The document focuses primarily on women’s rights and gender equality, but a significant part of it addresses employment, pay, workplace discrimination, the situation of independent trade unions and forced labour.

On 8–9 October, Sofia hosted the PERC Women’s Conference, dedicated to the care economy, decent work and the role of trade unions in protecting care workers. Maryia Taradzetskaya represented Belarusian independent trade unions on behalf of the BKDP.

Belarusian political prisoner and activist of the independent REP trade union Vatslau Areshka has become completely blind. This was reported by a relative of the political prisoner who has been informed about his condition in the penal colony.