The SoA stands with the Union of Belarusian Writers in the face of its forced liquidation

Picture of Martin Reed

Martin Reed

Martin was the SoA's Head of Communications from 2016 to 2024.
We condemn the forced liquidation of the Union of Belarusian Writers earlier this month.

The independent Union of Belarusian Writers (UBW), the Society of Authors’ (SoA) Belarusian counterpart, was forcibly dissolved on Friday 1st October following a court order from the Minsk Supreme Court.

This is the latest instalment in a series of efforts by the Belarusian authorities to repress writers, translators, and the independent cultural scene in Belarus – see for example the appeal earlier this year to press the illegitimate Lukashenka’s regime to release the political prisoners.

This persecution is simply unacceptable in a democratic regime and is in direct violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, including free speech.

‘We observe in real time the deterioration of a state into a fascist regime, in the direct neighbourhood of Europe,’ says Nina George, President of the European Writers Council (EWC). ‘It is true that the illegitimate Lukashenka regime has already abused forced liquidation as a popular means of pressure to bend unpopular opinions and frighten people in the decades before. However, what we have witnessed since July 2021 is a strategic extermination mechanism against free speech, against democracy, against culture – and against the Belarusian Nation.’

23 July 2021

Society of Authors responds to Belarusian government raid on authors’ union

7 February 2021

The Society of Authors backs call from the European Writers Council (of which we are members) and the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations to the Ministers of Culture from European countries to take urgent steps required to end the violence and repression against writers, translators, and the independent cultural scene in Belarus

18 September 2020

The Society of Authors has condemned the arrests of Belarusian authors in the wake of peaceful protests in Minsk earlier this month.