Alena Masliukova
Alena Masliukova is an environmental rights defender and a member of HRC Viasna in Svetlogorsk. She has been particularly engaged in activities against the construction of a pulp bleaching factory in Svetlogorsk on account of its negative environmental impact. Alena Masliukova is also a member of Human Rights Centre Viasna (HRC Viasna).
HRC Viasna works to promote human rights and provides practical assistance to civic initiatives for the legal defense of citizens. It also conducts research into the state of civil society and legal defense in Belarus.
The environment for the work of human rights defenders (HRDs) in Belarus has continuously deteriorated since an authoritarian political regime was established there in 1994. HRDs are systematically subjected to intimidation and harassment, including judicial harassment, restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly, and movement, as well as arbitrary detention and conviction, ill-treatment and defamation, searches of offices and personal belongings, and confiscations of equipment.
