But the Belarusian de facto authorities think otherwise. In March 2026 Human Constanta, along with some members of our team (and some people who are not part of it), has been designated an “extremist formation.”

There is no doubt that designating our organization an “extremist formation” is politically motivated. With this decision, the Belarusian regime wants to make our human rights work harder and to punish the people who help us. Defending human rights under undemocratic, dictatorial regimes has never been easy. Belarus is no exception.

This decision violates a number of the Republic of Belarus’s international legal obligations to respect human rights at once: the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of association, the right to a fair trial, and the right to freedom from discrimination.

Nevertheless, we will certainly keep telling people about their rights and standing up for them. We will keep documenting the regime’s human rights violations. We will keep helping those who need our help, despite the unlawful labels the Belarusian state pins on those who genuinely protect Belarusians.

If you are in Belarus, have ever interacted with Human Constanta, and are worried about this news, please read this text and take the necessary precautions. You can also contact one of us through secure channels and ask for advice.

We have been designated an “extremist formation”

Attention! Human Constanta has been designated an “extremist formation.” Law enforcement may treat certain forms of cooperation with us as crimes.

“Facilitating extremist activity” (Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code):

• sending information or media materials (photos and videos);
• interviews and expert commentary;
• any form of collaboration or cooperation with us.

Penalty: restriction of liberty for up to 5 years or imprisonment for up to 7 years, with or without a fine.

“Financing extremist activity” (Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code):

• donations in any form (regular money, cryptocurrency, transferring goods, a percentage of tax).

Penalty: restriction of liberty for up to 5 years or imprisonment for up to 8 years, with or without a fine.

“Participation in an extremist formation” (Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code):

• in some cases, following our social media accounts;
• helping moderate our social media;
• signing up for various bots or forms, and any traces of having done so;
• any form of collaboration or cooperation with us.

“Undergoing training or other preparation to take part in extremist activity” (Article 361-5 of the Criminal Code):

• taking part in our educational camps, trainings, webinars, lectures and other learning formats.

These articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code are applied retroactively. This means you can be punished for any of the actions above even if they took place before we were designated an “extremist formation.” For example, for a repost of our publication that you made five years ago and never deleted, or for helping us edit a video back in 2020.

Which actions involving our resources are not formally punishable?

• visiting our resources without following/subscribing to them;
• mentioning our organization without direct links;
• keeping and sharing the content of our texts without direct links or crediting us as the authors (provided the authorities do not consider any of them to contain elements of other offenses, such as “insulting a government official” or “inciting hatred”).

We also remind you that our social media accounts, including this page, were previously designated “extremist materials.” Distributing, storing, producing or transporting our information products may lead to administrative liability under Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

“Distribution” may include:

• forwarding our posts in group chats and private messages;
• likes and comments on our posts;
• adding hyperlinks to our materials in your own publications;
• joint publications with us;
• reposts on social media;
• publishing photos with our watermarks or logos;
• putting up or handing out our stickers and flyers;
• wearing merch with our branding.

“Storage” may include:

• screenshots of our publications in your device’s gallery;
• our materials in your messenger’s cache;
• keeping our stickers and merch.

For these actions you may face:

• a fine of 10 to 500 base units;
• administrative arrest of up to 15 days for each separate “offense” (for example, for three reposts you can be jailed three times in a row, for a total of 45 days);
• confiscation of the “instrument of the offense” (for example, the phone used to make the repost, or even your car if you keep our flyers in its glove compartment).

Also, if your website contains links to our publications, it may be blocked or likewise designated “extremist.”

What should our followers do if they are in Belarus or plan to visit?

• Unfollow/unsubscribe from our social media, and regularly clear your search and browsing history if you keep reading us without subscribing.
• When visiting our resources, use a VPN and your browser’s incognito mode so your searches aren’t saved and recommendation algorithms aren’t tuned to them.
• If possible, delete all reposts of our publications from your pages, private messages containing links to us, and hyperlinks to us in your publications and work.
• Remove your likes and comments under our posts.
• Check your “Saved” tabs, browser bookmarks, Stories archive on Instagram, Facebook and Telegram, and your YouTube watch history for our posts and links to us.
• Clear your conversations with our staff in private messages, email, and via our social media accounts.
• Delete screenshots of our publications and photos with our branding from albums and galleries on your devices. Also delete them from the “Recently deleted” folder, from cloud storage, and from your cloud storage trash.