1 USCIRF Country Update: Belarus | December 2023

COUNTRY UPDATE:

BELARUS

UNITED STATES COMMISSION on

INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

732 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite #A714

Washington, DC 20401

202-523-3240

December 2023

By Dylan Schexnaydre, Researcher

Religious Freedom Conditions in Belarus

Overview

The religious freedom situation in Belarus continues to deteriorate as Belarusian 

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka subjugates every aspect of social life to the 

state’s security and bureaucratic apparatuses. Following popular protests against 

the fraudulent 2020 election which kept President Lukashenka in power, authorities 

launched a brutal and ongoing crackdown on civil society that has transformed

the country into a totalitarian state, with the government perceiving any activities 

independent of its control as a threat to its existence. The government has banned 

or shut down independent media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and 

opposition political parties and criminalized engaging with these organizations. 

Law enforcement has regularly imprisoned, tortured, denied medical care to, and 

killed prodemocracy protesters, opposition politicians, journalists, and human 

rights activists for peacefully expressing their views, assembling, or documenting 

government abuses. 

The state has not exempted religious communities from this overwhelming pressure 

and has sought to re-exert its authority to regulate religious affairs. In 2023, Belarus’ 

parliament considered adopting a new religion law that would impose stricter 

requirements on religious communities and unjustifiably prohibit them from certain 

religious and political activities. Law enforcement agencies harass Protestants who 

conduct ordinary religious activities without state approval, and local authorities 

pressure Roman Catholics by targeting their houses of worship, including Minsk’s 

iconic Church of Saints Simon and Helena (also known as the Red Church). Christian 

religious leaders of all denominations are often detained, fined, imprisoned, and 

forced into exile for activities that the state perceives as political in nature. From 

2004 to 2012, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had 

previously placed Belarus on its tier two “Watch List” for its government’s violations of 

religious freedom.

This country update provides an overview of religious freedom conditions in 

Belarus in 2023, including the impact of expanding government repression on 

religious communities.

www.USCIRF.gov

@USCIRF

Media@USCIRF.gov

Abraham Cooper

Chair

Frederick A. Davie

Vice Chair

Commissioners

David Curry

Susie Gelman 

Mohamed Magid 

Stephen Schneck

Nury Turkel 

Eric Ueland

Frank Wolf

Erin D. Singshinsuk

Executive Director

USCIRF’s Mission

To advance international 

freedom of religion or 

belief, by independently 

assessing and unflinchingly 

confronting threats to this 

fundamental right.
2 USCIRF Country Update: Belarus | December 2023

Religious Demographics

The U.S. government estimates that Belarus has a 

population of 9.4 million. According to a 2016 survey by 

Belarus’ State Information and Analytical Center of the 

Presidential Administration, 53 percent of the country’s 

adult population belongs to the Belarusian Orthodox 

Church, 6 percent belongs to the Roman Catholic 

Church, 8 percent identifies as atheist, and 22 percent 

identifies as “uncertain.” Other religious groups 

constituting less than 2 percent of the population include 

Jews, Muslims, Greek Catholics, Old Believers, other 

Orthodox Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants, 

members of the International Society of Krishna 

Consciousness, and many others. Roughly 3 percent of 

Belarus’ population consists of ethnic Poles, who are 

predominately Roman Catholic.

New Religion Law and 

Other Legal Developments

2002 and 2023 Religion Laws 

For over two decades, the Belarusian state has sought to 

systematically regulate religious life in the country—albeit 

to varying degrees. While Belarus’ 2002 law On Freedom 

of Conscience and Religious Organizations (religion law) 

guaranteed freedom of religion or belief to all citizens, it 

also imposed several burdensome bureaucratic measures 

that religious groups must adhere to in order to conduct 

their activities legally. This included registering their 

activities with the state, limiting the locations where 

religious activities could occur without prior government 

approval, and subjecting religious materials used by 

missionaries to review. Authorities could also liquidate 

religious communities for carrying out activities perceived 

as against the country’s “sovereignty” among other 

reasons. However, prior to the 2020 protests, government 

officials typically refrained from strict enforcement of the 

law and instead engaged in administrative harassment 

and bureaucratic obstruction such as not approving 

religious registration applications or materials consistently 

or in a timely manner.

In June 2023, authorities introduced a new, more 

repressive religion law in an apparent attempt to 

reconsolidate control over religious communities. The 

June draft law recycled and modified several problematic 

articles found in the current law and introduced new 

requirements and restrictions for religious communities. 

In October 2023, the parliament began considering

a modified version of the June draft called “On 

Amendments to Laws on the Activities of Religious 

Organizations” that maintained most of the provisions of 

the original draft. Moreover, the new religion law provides 

the government with a pretext to effectively ban certain 

religious communities and eliminate elements of religious 

society that the state perceives as challenging its authority.

The new proposed religion law would require religious 

communities to re-register with the state within a 

year. To register, each community must submit an 

application with its charter, documentation of its right 

to gather at the location specified in its charter, and 

the personal information, including the full names, 

phone numbers, and home and work addresses, of at 

least 20 members who are over the age of 18. While the 

previous religion law required the same information, the 

Russia

Poland

Belarus

Ukraine

Latvia

Lithuania

Minsk
USCIRF Country Update: Belarus | December 2023 3

current crackdown on civil society raises concerns that 

the government may misuse the information to target 

religious community members or that some communities 

would withhold the information due to those fears, 

resulting in the denial of their registration. Authorities 

had previously denied registration to opposition political 

parties that refused to provide such information due to 

security concerns during their re-registration process. 

The proposed law reaffirms Belarus’ tiered religious 

group system that grants larger religious organizations 

the exclusive rights to establish monasteries, religious 

missions, and religious educational institutions through 

an additional registration process. The proposed law 

does, however, increase the requirements to qualify 

for these higher tiered statuses. National religious 

associations must include 15 religious communities 

operating in all the regions of Belarus and the city of 

Minsk, with at least one of these communities active in 

the country for 30 years. The current law only requires 

a national religious association to list 10 communities 

operating in at least four of Belarus’ six oblast regions, 

with one community active for the last 20 years. Regional 

religious associations must include at least 10 religious 

communities in one or other nearby regions. The 

proposed law also explicitly limits religious organizations 

to conducting charitable activities solely for the elderly, 

disabled, and citizens suffering from substance abuse. 

Only monasteries would be able to establish children’s 

homes for orphans.

The draft law recognizes the special role the Belarusian 

Orthodox Church has played in the country’s historical, 

cultural, and spiritual formation. It also emphasizes the 

importance of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, 

Judaism, and Islam in Belarus. If a religious community 

previously “unknown” to the government attempts 

to register, it must submit for state review the group’s 

religious beliefs and practices, historical development, 

and views on family, marriage, education, performance 

of public duties, public health, and restrictions on civil 

rights and obligations. 

The proposed law furthermore requires all religious 

communities to:

 Display the religious organization’s full name and 

confessional affiliation when conducting religious 

activities;

 Submit a notification of the replacement head of a 

religious community within 10 days of the individual’s 

appointment; and

 Submit imported missionary literature and other 

related materials for government review.

The new law would not only require certain actions from 

religious communities but also prohibit a range of items 

and activities, including but not limited to:

 Participating in, funding, or supporting political 

activities;

 Using non-religious symbols in places of worship;

 Engaging in speech that insults government officials or 

representatives of other religions and their followers in 

places of worship;

 Using texts and images that incite hatred, offend 

the “religious feelings” of citizens, or promote other 

“extremist” activities in places of worship;

 Using religious property in ways not specified in a 

community’s charter, including for political purposes 

or carrying out “terrorist” or other “extremist” 

activities;

 Promoting religious education and related materials 

that contradict the generally accepted “traditional 

values” and “ideology” of the Belarusian state or 

justify the propaganda of war, social, ethnic or 

religious hatred;

 Conducting religious education in languages other 

than state recognized ones (Belarusian and Russian);

 Engaging in religious activity without registration; 

 Engaging in missionary activities in residential 

buildings, outside of government-approved locations, 

or by persons not approved by the governing body of a 

registered religious community; and

 Distributing religious literature in residential buildings 

and public transport facilities.

Several key phrases such as “offend religious feelings,” 

“traditional values,” and “ideology of the Belarusian state” 

lack clear definitions and could therefore contribute to 

the criminalization of peaceful expressions of religious 

beliefs. The state furthermore would have the power to 

liquidate religious communities for violating these and 

other vaguely worded prohibited activities, including 

acting against Belarus’ sovereignty, domestic and 

foreign policy, constitutional system, and civil harmony; 

discrediting Belarus and promoting hatred, other 

extremist activities, and humiliation of national honor 

and dignity; preventing citizens from fulfilling their state 

and public duties; and harming the health and morals 

of citizens.
4 USCIRF Country Update: Belarus | December 2023

The retooling of the religion law demonstrates the 

government’s intent to provide itself with a more 

encompassing legal framework to regulate religious life 

and crack down on religious individuals and groups. In 

August 2023, three United Nations special rapporteurs, 

including the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion 

or belief Nazila Ghanea, urged the government to review 

and reconsider key portions of the June draft religion 

law that would “fail to meet Belarus’ obligations under 

international human rights law.” In November 2023, the 

draft religion law passed its second reading in the 

parliament.

“Extremist” Materials and Organizations

The Belarusian state has weaponized a wide range 

of vaguely worded, questionable criminal statutes to 

punish dissent and decimate independent civil society, 

with trumped-up charges and restrictions related to socalled “extremism” regularly applied. Belarus’ law On 

Combating Extremism defines “extremism” very broadly 

as any activity that threatens the country’s 

“independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and 

foundations of constitutional order,” without necessarily 

requiring the use or advocacy of violence. In practice, 

this ambiguity allows the government to criminalize any 

activity, speech, expression, and assembly it opposes. 

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MoIA) has labeled 

“extremist” more than a hundred organizations and 

2,000 individuals, and Belarusian courts have 

designated “extremist” a list exceeding 3,000 materials, 

which includes printed and online publications, social 

media pages, and symbols. Citizens can face 

administrative and criminal prosecution with 

punishments ranging from fines to lengthy 

imprisonment for engaging with an organization, 

individual, or material designated 

“extremist.” In recent years, authorities have even 

arrested, fined, and detained Christian religious leaders 

for “distributing extremist materials,” which will be 

discussed in greater detail later in this report. 

Belarus has designated religious literature, websites, and 

social media pages affiliated with religious groups, and 

other religious content as “extremist” materials. In the 

last year, courts have declared extremist a YouTube 

interview with an exiled Roman Catholic priest, the 

book Interpretation of the Ten Last Juz of the Noble 

Qur’an, Greek Catholic news website Tsarkva, and 

several materials belonging to the Pentecostal New Life 

Church, including its website, social media pages, and a 

prayer that mentioned government human rights 

abuses. 

Between August and September 2023, various courts 

declared “extremist” the social media pages and symbol 

of Christian Vision, a Christian group that provides 

commentary on religious freedom in Belarus and 

documents human rights violations against Belarusian 

religious leaders, religious lay persons, and religious 

communities.

Authorities have also declared “extremist” several 

independent media outlets and human rights 

organizations that regularly report on religious freedom 

and other human rights issues within Belarus. In late 

2021, the MoIA added independent Belarusian news 

channel Belsat and U.S. broadcaster Radio Free Europe/

Radio Liberty’s Belarusian language news service Radio 

Svaboda to its registry of extremist organizations. Since 

then, law enforcement agencies have imprisoned affiliated 

journalists for their work and others—including religious 

figures—who simply repost their content on social 

media. In August 2023, the MoIA declared Viasna, the 

country’s premier human rights organization which 

regularly reports on human rights violations against 

religious leaders, an “extremist formation” and included 

about a hundred websites, accounts, materials, and 

information tied to Viasna as “extremist.” Five of Viasna’s 

members, including chairperson and Nobel Peace Prize 

laureate Ales Bialiatski, remain in prison on political 

charges tied to their human rights work.

Other Administrative and Criminal Offenses

Other legislation and elements of Belarus’ administrative 

and criminal codes remain problematic for the 

free exercise of religion or belief. For example, law 

enforcement agencies have fined several religious 

leaders and other persons engaging in religious activities 

for organizing a “mass event” without government 

permission, which will be highlighted further in the next 

section. Following amendments to the state’s Mass Events 

Law that went into effect in June 2021, organizers of socalled “mass events” must get approval from authorities 

prior to advertising an event. Violations of the law can 

result in administrative detention, fines, and up to three 

years’ imprisonment. 

In January 2022, the country reinstated a criminal 

statute that authorities had abolished three years 

prior to punish activity in unregistered or forcibly 

dissolved nongovernmental organizations, including 

religious organizations, with fines or up to two years’ 

imprisonment. Additionally, authorities have reportedly 

threatened to charge those who publicly share their 
USCIRF Country Update: Belarus | December 2023 5

religious beliefs with others with “incitement of racial, 

ethnic, religious or other social hatred,” which entails a 

penalty of up to five years in prison. 

New Life Church and 

Other Protestant Communities

Protestant communities refusing to submit to the 

state’s strict regime of control have faced surveillance, 

harassment, detention, fines, and various other obstacles 

to or punishments for their religious activities. Among 

the religious groups enduring the most repression in 

Belarus is the Pentecostal New Life Church, which has 

had a zoning dispute with authorities over its church 

property since 2002. In recent years, the government 

ramped up its targeting of New Life Church after the 

latter took a public stance, including through prayer, 

to support the protest movement that emerged after 

the 2020 fraudulent election and criticize state officials 

involved in human rights abuses and violence against 

protesters. In February 2021, police forcibly evicted

New Life Church from its building during religious 

services. In September 2022, authorities detained New 

Life Church Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko and fined 

him 3,200 rubles ($973) for holding religious services 

in the parking lot beside the closed church. Authorities 

also detained Pastor Antoni Bokun, a Baptist pastor from 

another church who participated in the service, and fined 

him the same amount. Both pastors were charged with 

organizing an unauthorized mass event.

In June 2023, authorities bulldozed New Life Church 

and the following month blocked the group’s website 

for a period of six months, accusing it of publishing 

“extremist” information and “building up threats to 

national security.” That same month, New Life Church 

received an official government letter renewing demands 

that it owed 458,918 rubles ($139,516) in taxes. In August 

2023, 20 armed police officers reportedly searched Pastor 

Goncharenko’s home and detained him and Ilya Budai, 

Goncharenko’s son-in-law and New Life Church’s youth 

pastor. A court later sentenced Goncharenko to 10 days 

of administrative detention and Budai to five days for 

disobeying police and disorderly conduct, respectively. 

Courts then declared “extremist” New Life Church’s 

website, social media pages, and the materials posted 

on those pages, including prayers that condemned 

Belarusian officials involved in human rights violations. 

In September 2023, the Minsk City Executive Committee 

initiated proceedings to liquidate New Life Church for 

violating the country’s religion law on account of its socalled “extremist” activities. In October 2023, a court in 

Minsk liquidated New Life Church.

Courts have imposed various punishments on 

members of other Protestant denominations for their 

unauthorized religious activities. In July 2022, a court 

fined Pastor Dmitry Podlobko 640 rubles ($195) for 

performing outdoor baptisms on his family’s privately 

owned property. In August 2022, a Gomel court fined 

two members of another Protestant church 640 rubles 

($195) each for holding unauthorized baptisms. In April 

2023, police in Minsk detained seven members of several 

Protestant denominations—the majority from New 

Life Church—for talking about their religious beliefs 

with passers-by. The Central District Court in Minsk 

subsequently fined them each between 3,330 ($1,012) and 

3,700 rubles ($1,125). In May 2023, police in Drogichin 

detained several members of the Baptist Council of 

Churches for talking about their faith in the city’s main 

square and passing out religious literature. A judge later 

fined one of those Baptists, septuagenarian Vladimir 

Burshtyn, 555 rubles ($169). In July 2023, the Malorita 

District Prosecutor summoned Burshtyn and allegedly 

threatened to criminally prosecute him for inciting hatred 

if he continued to share his beliefs in public.

Roman Catholic Churches and 

Other Religious Groups

Authorities in recent years have imposed arbitrary 

restrictions and numerous fees on religious communities 

for using government-owned religious buildings—

measures that Roman Catholics perceive as intended to 

pressure their community. The 2020 protests exacerbated 

tensions between the Roman Catholic Church and 

the Belarusian government, as the government viewed

the Church and its clergy as actively supporting the 

opposition.

In September 2022, government officials closed Minsk’s 

Roman Catholic Church of Saints Simon and Helena (the 

Red Church) after a mysterious fire broke out in a small 

annex. Since then, the church has remained closed for 

government-ordered repairs, despite eyewitness reports

of minimal damage limited to the sacristy. Officials have 

provided no timetable for the completion of repairs and 

have forbidden parishioners from using the church and 

its surrounding areas for customary religious activities. 

Many believe the church’s indefinite closure to be tied to 

the role it played during the country’s 2020 protests when 

protesters rallied at and even fled into the church for 

protection from police violence. 
6 USCIRF Country Update: Belarus | December 2023

Law enforcement agencies have sometimes prohibited 

religious activities at or near the Red Church since its 

closure, citing the prohibition on mass events. In October 

2022, police reportedly harassed the parish’s priest and 

a group of parishioners praying the rosary outside of 

the church. In April 2023, officials rejected the parish’s 

request to hold Easter services in the parish rectory, 

and in May 2023, the parish announced it would not 

participate in the Minsk Corpus Christi procession for 

undisclosed reasons.

The state also refuses to hand over Roman Catholic 

churches seized during the Soviet period. Instead, it 

has reportedly imposed rent on parishes or charged 

them for unrequested renovations that do not meet 

the communities’ needs. Prior to the closure of the 

Red Church, city officials had been charging the 

parish roughly 13,000 rubles ($3,952) a month in rent, 

and by July 2020, the Red Church reportedly owed

more than 160,000 rubles ($48,642) in taxes and for 

restoration work. In January 2023, the parish priest 

of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin 

Mary Church in Babruysk announced the parish would 

begin paying an undisclosed amount of money to the 

government to rent the church, despite not having to 

pay rent previously. Officials allegedly threatened to 

give the church to a museum and furthermore restrict 

parishioners’ ability to use the church for religious 

purposes if they did not enter into a rental agreement. 

Officials had imposed rent on other Roman Catholic 

churches under similar threats. Such agreements have 

not been made public.

In July 2023, police raided the Cathedral of the Blessed 

Virgin Mary in Minsk and beat priests who refused to 

let them search their phones for incriminating materials. 

The raid came after security forces arrested a catechist 

affiliated with the church in May for disseminating 

“extremist” materials. Two of the church’s priests, Yury 

Reshetko and Valery Dovgil, reportedly fled Belarus 

after the raid. 

Authorities continued to prevent the Old Believer 

community in Minsk from building a church. In March 

2022, the Minsk Region Executive Committee rejected

an Old Believer application to build a church, forcing 

the community to continue to travel outside of Minsk to 

gather for worship.

Clergy and Laity Targeted for 

Perceived Political Activities

According to Christian Vision, the state has detained, 

fined, imprisoned, pushed out of their positions, 

or forced into exile at least 60 religious leaders of 

the Belarusian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Greek 

Catholic, and various Protestant churches since the 

2020 crackdown began. Such targeting of clergy has often 

come as a result of their perceived political activities—

reflecting a broader trend of oppression facing all 

Belarusians. Belarus is estimated to have approximately 

1,500 political prisoners. 

In December 2022, Belarusian Orthodox priest Uladzislau 

Bahamolnikau was released after spending more than 

90 days in pretrial detention for sending “extremist 

resources” to his mother. According to Christian Vision, 

Bahamolnikau endured harsh living conditions and 

caught COVID-19 while detained. In January 2023, 

police detained Belarusian Orthodox priest Dionisy 

Korostelev for praying in church for Ukrainian forces. The 

Belarusian Orthodox Church leadership subsequently 

banned him from religious services. In April 2023, the 

Centralny District Court of Minsk sentenced the elder 

at the New Earth Baptist Church, Andrei Mamoika, 

and his wife Vera, to two-and-a-half years of restricted 

freedom under home confinement for publishing online 

photos of the 2020 protests. That same month, authorities 

in Novalukoml detained and sentenced to 15 days’ 

administrative arrest Aleksandr Zaretski, pastor of the 

city’s Evangelical Church, for liking and commenting on 

materials recognized as “extremist.” 

In May 2023, law enforcement across the Viciebsk 

region detained on the same day one Greek Catholic and 

two Roman Catholic priests in relation to their social 

media activity. Both Roman Catholic priest Viachaslau 

Adamovich and Greek Catholic priest Aliaksandar 

Shautsou faced charges of disseminating “extremist” 

materials and organizing an unauthorized mass event, 

with Shautsou spending 45 days in jail. In June 2023, 

riot police in Mogilev violently detained Pastor Siarhey 

Udalyou of the Evangelical Reformed “Calvinist 

Gathering” Church, reportedly in connection with 

his political activities or religious training in Ukraine. 

He was later released under unclear circumstances. 

In July 2023, a court in Navahrudak fined Roman 

Catholic priest Yury Zhegarin 555 rubles ($169) and 

confiscated his phone after police charged him with 

disseminating “extremist” materials for liking a Radio 

Svaboda article on social media in 2021. In August 2023, 
UNITED STATES COMMISSION on INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

732 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite #A714

Washington, DC 20401

202-523-3240

www.USCIRF.gov

@USCIRF

Media@USCIRF.gov

police detained Roman Catholic priest Antoni Adamovich 

and searched his church’s rectory after interrogating him 

and confiscating his phone. Police had tried to arrest him 

inside the church, but parishioners stopped them. A week 

later, it was revealed authorities charged Adamovich with 

distributing “extremist” materials.

Non-clergy political prisoners have also experienced 

violations of their freedom of religion or belief while 

in prison. Belsat noted that since the beginning of the 

nationwide crackdown, prisoners’ rights to access religious 

materials and participate in religious activities have been 

based on the arbitrary whims and regulations of individual 

prison administrators, with some denying, prohibiting, 

or confiscating religious items including Bibles, religious 

books and magazines, crosses, rosaries, and even 

Christmas cards. Prisoners have also been denied visits 

from clergy. On the rare occasions when such visits are 

approved, they are often heavily restricted or make certain 

religious activities like administering the sacrament 

difficult or impossible. Catholics and Protestants have 

reportedly faced more challenges than Orthodox prisoners 

as the Belarusian Orthodox Church maintains its own 

facilities in prisons and generally has greater access.

Conclusion

The decline in the freedom of religion or belief in Belarus 

is of grave concern. President Lukashenka’s government 

continues to severely repress civil society and ramp up 

efforts to regulate religious life. As the U.S. administration 

and Congress seek to address Belarus’ human rights 

concerns, they must prioritize the burgeoning crackdown 

on religious communities as part of those efforts. 

Professional Staff

Michael Ardovino

Policy Analyst 

Danielle Ashbahian

Chief of Public Affairs

Keely Bakken

Supervisory Policy Analyst

Susan Bishai

Policy Analyst

Mollie Blum

Researcher

Elizabeth K. Cassidy

Director of Research & Policy

Mingzhi Chen

Senior Policy Analyst

Patrick Greenwalt

Policy Analyst

Sema Hasan

Policy Analyst

Thomas Kraemer

Chief Administrative Officer

Veronica McCarthy

Public Affairs Associate

Hilary Miller

Researcher

Nora Morton

Operations Specialist

Dylan Schexnaydre

Researcher

Jamie Staley

Supervisory Policy Advisor

Scott Weiner

Supervisory Policy Analyst

Luke Wilson

Researcher

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the 

U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, 

the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief.