Maria Rabkova is a woman human rights defender and coordinator of the Volunteer Service at Human Rights Centre Viasna (HRC Viasna). Together with Viasna volunteers, Maria Rabkova has been monitoring peaceful assemblies that have broken out across Belarus since the announcement of the 2020 Presidential election results on 9 August. She has also been documenting cases of torture and other ill-treatment against detained protesters. The woman human rights defender played an active role in the independent election observation campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”.
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.
