Anastasiya Vasilchuk

Anastasiya Vasilchuk (she/her) is a Belarusian human rights activist currently working in exile with the Human Rights Center Viasna, Belarus’s largest human rights organization. Based in Lithuania, she leads Viasna’s information and communications work and coordinates the organization’s process for recognizing individuals as political prisoners. Viasna, founded in 1996, documents repression, supports political prisoners and their families, and advocates for democratic change in Belarus through engagement with international human rights mechanisms and institutions, including the UN, EU, OSCE, and the International Criminal Court.
Anastasiya holds a Master’s degree in Communication Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Information and Communication from Belarusian State University. Her engagement in human rights activism began during her university years in Minsk. She joined Viasna as a volunteer in 2015, monitoring peaceful assemblies and elections, and became a staff journalist in 2016. Since 2020, she has led the organization’s information work, focusing on documenting and communicating human rights violations and raising international awareness of the situation in Belarus.
Looking ahead, Anastasiya plans to further expand Viasna’s international media reach, raise public awareness of human rights violations in Belarus, and contribute to efforts to hold those responsible for repression accountable.
Anastasiya is a participant in the 2026-27 Human Rights Advocates Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University.