illegitimate election and the subsequent crackdowns on peaceful protestors to the contested results of the election, including at some of Belarus’s largest factories such as the BelAZ truck plant, the Minsk Tractor Works, and the Minsk Automobile Plant. (7) After the August 9, 2020, presidential election, the Government of Belarus restricted the free flow of information to silence the opposition and to conceal the regime’s violent crackdown on peaceful protestors, including by stripping the accreditation of journalists from major foreign news outlets, disrupting internet access, limiting access to social media and other digital communication platforms, and detaining and harassing countless journalists. (8) The Government of Belarus, led by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, continues to subject thousands of pro-democracy political activists and peaceful protesters to harassment, beatings, enforced disappearance, and imprisonment, particularly as a result of their attempts to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of assembly and association, including following violent crackdowns on peaceful protestors and mass detentions of peaceful protesters resisting the results of the contested 2020 election. (9) Women serve as the leading force in demonstrations across the country, protesting police brutality and mass detentions by wearing white, carrying flowers, forming solidarity chains , and unmasking undercover police trying to arrest demonstrators. (10) The Government of Belarus, led by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, suppresses independent media and journalists and restricts access to the internet, including social media and other digital communication platforms, in violation of the right to freedom of speech and expression of those dissenting from the dictatorship of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. (11) The Government of Belarus, led by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, has criminalized access to independent media sources and media channels, including foreign media, by designating such sources and channels as extremist and conducting arbitrary arrests