Tatsiana Ziniakova

Tatsiana Ziniakova is a legal analyst with Human Constanta – a Belarusian human rights organization, now liquidated by the decision of Belarusian authorities and working in exile. Tatsiana holds an LL.B. and LL.M. degrees in public international law and human rights law from Belarusian State University and Wake Forest University, respectively. As a Fulbright scholar and grantee of the Edmund S. Muskie Professional Fellowship Program, she was a research fellow with the World Justice Project, focusing on legal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the global erosion of the rule of law.

In her current role at Human Constanta, Tatsiana leads the analytical and advocacy lines of the organization’s work, coordinating multilateral advocacy at, inter alia, the UN, OSCE and ICC, as well as strategic litigation before the UN Human Rights Committee, while also driving fundraising for civil society coalitions. Through advocacy, analytics, and education, Human Constanta tackles the questions related to repressive uses of anti‑extremism legislation in Belarus and the EECA region, digital rights, cybersecurity, migrants’ rights, and broader issues of accountability for human rights violations.

As a researcher, Tatsiana has co-authored Nations in Transit 2023 and 2024 Belarus reports for Freedom House, as well as studies on digital authoritarianism, civic tech, and other digital rights challenges in Eastern Europe. Her scholarship on gender-based violence in IHRL was recognized with the ASIL David D. Caron Prize. 

Bringing a perspective grounded in legal rigor and advocacy, Tatsiana’s work explores how authoritarianism manifests across both digital and physical civic spaces in Belarus and the wider region. She is engaged in developing strategies to support civic resilience in exile and to challenge transnational repression through international mechanisms. Now based in Warsaw, she continues to advance rights-centered policy change that prioritizes the voices and vulnerabilities of repressed communities online and offline. 

Tatsiana is a participant in the 2025-2026 Human Rights Advocates Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University.