This report provides an in-depth mapping of accountability mechanisms capable of addressing serious human rights violations and breaches of international criminal law in Belarus. It distinguishes between mechanisms that address state responsibility, those focused on individual criminal liability, and hybrid approaches that serve both functions.

By setting out practical steps for engagement and clarifying the potential impact of each option, it serves as a guide for States and other actors seeking to advance accountability.

The report outlines actions taken to date, identifies gaps in the current accountability landscape, and assesses the roles foreseen for victims and civil society organizations within each mechanism.

On 3 October IAPB and partners held an online launch event for the Paths to Accountability in Belarus report. The event have been recorded and can be accessed here.

In recent years, civil society-led accountability initiatives have multiplied, leading to the development of new survivor-centred practices. This practice note identifies key principles in adopting a survivor-centred approach to documentation of torture and other serious international crimes, demonstrates how these can be implemented at various stages in the process of documentation by civil society organisations for the purpose of criminal accountability, and presents both lessons learnt and good practices.

The International Accountability Platform for Belarus (IAPB) was established in March 2021 to collect, preserve and analyse evidence of grave human rights violations committed during the Belarus’ 2020 presidential elections and its aftermath. We use this evidence to support investigations and prosecutions of alleged perpetrators by national prosecution services and international accountability bodies.

On 30 September 2024, Lithuania referred the situation in Belarus to the ICC, alleging that senior officials have committed crimes against humanity since May 2020. The Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is conducting a preliminary examination.

What happens next? Our briefing explains the next stages of the referral and how States can support the opening of an investigation into international crimes in Belarus.

Belarus is no State party to the ICC, but Lithuania has argued that the ICC has jurisdiction since some crimes took place on its own territory, and the territory of other State parties to the ICC: The regime forced hundreds of thousands to flee and continues to persecute them even on foreign soil.

The ICC’s preliminary examination is a critical step in securing justice and accountability for victims of the serious human rights violations in Belarus, but broader support by States – through joining or submitting additional referrals, evidence sharing, and extraterritorial prosecutions at national level – will be essential to achieving justice for victims and survivors of the regime, and in signalling the international community’s intolerance for impunity.

Other State Parties to the ICC joining the referral of Lithuania would send a strong message that the international community will not tolerate impunity for such crimes.

States can also compliment ICC actions with extraterritorial prosecutions at the national level on crimes that are not subject to the referral.