IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 681 
Recognizing the ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression and human 
rights in Belarus a year after the 2020 election, calling for an end 
to Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s continued campaign of repression against 
peaceful protesters, journalists, cultural workers, human rights defenders, 
trade union activists, political activists, and government critics, and ex-
pressing solidarity with the Belarusian people. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 24, 2021 
Mr. COHEN (for himself, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. FITZPATRICK, 
Mr. HUDSON, and Mr. CLEAVER) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing the ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression 
and human rights in Belarus a year after the 2020 
election, calling for an end to Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s 
continued campaign of repression against peaceful pro-
testers, journalists, cultural workers, human rights de-
fenders, trade union activists, political activists, and gov-
ernment critics, and expressing solidarity with the 
Belarusian people. 
Whereas, on August 9, 2020, the Government of Belarus con-
ducted a Presidential election that was marred by arrests 
of leading opposition candidates, groundless refusals to 
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•HRES 681 IH 
register certain opposition candidates for the ballot, and 
allegations of widespread fraud; 
Whereas, on November 18, 2020, the House of Representa-
tives passed H.R. 8438: The Belarus Democracy, Human 
Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2020; 
Whereas, on April 20, 2021, the House of Representatives 
passed H. Res. 124: Supporting the people of Belarus 
and their democratic aspirations and condemning the 
election rigging and subsequent violent crackdowns on 
peaceful protesters by the illegitimate Lukashenka re-
gime; 
Whereas, on July 27, 2021, President Biden met Belarusian 
opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya at the White 
House and declared that ‘‘The United States stands with 
the people of Belarus in their quest for democracy and 
universal human rights.’’; 
Whereas, on August 9, 2021, the Biden administration im-
posed a new round of economic sanctions targeting offi-
cials, companies, and state-owned enterprises in Belarus 
who fund the government of Alyaksandr Lukashenka in 
response to his ongoing abuses 1 year after the emer-
gence of protests against his rule; 
Whereas in the following months, hundreds of thousands of 
Belarusian citizens engaged in peaceful protests demand-
ing the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka; 
Whereas these protests were met with unprecedented violence 
and repression by the Belarusian authorities, which re-
peatedly attacked the rights to freedom of expression and 
assembly and targeted peaceful protesters, journalists, 
cultural figures, and other Belarusian citizens; 
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•HRES 681 IH 
Whereas a year later, Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s government 
has continued, and at points heightened, its campaign to 
silence critical voices, resulting in the unprecedented clo-
sure of civic spaces and broader attacks on human rights 
in Belarus; 
Whereas, since August 2020, more than 35,000 peaceful pro-
testers in Belarus have been detained; 
Whereas, as of September 17, 2021, Belarusian NGOs recog-
nized more than 660 people who were detained or impris-
oned in Belarus on politically motivated charges, mostly 
in connection to their alleged involvement in protests and 
other political activism during and after the Presidential 
election; 
Whereas the country’s top rights group has testimony from 
more than 1,000 people who detailed torture and other 
cruel and inhumane treatment against them while in de-
tention in 2020; 
Whereas at least 23 lawyers have been disbarred since Octo-
ber 2020 in retaliation for their human rights work, and 
new amendments to the Law on Bar and Advocates fur-
ther restrict the independence of Belarusian lawyers; 
Whereas Belarusian authorities received over 4,644 com-
plaints concerning police brutality in protests and deten-
tions by late November 2020; 
Whereas at least four protesters died as a result of police 
brutality, one political activist died in prison, and one 
teenager committed suicide after being interrogated by 
security officials; 
Whereas Belarus was the world’s fifth highest jailer of writ-
ers and public intellectuals with at least 18 behind bars 
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