On 22 May 2026, Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) convened an early morning session at GLOBSEC, the second largest security conference in Prague. It drew a full room and produced a concrete outcome: the launch of a declaration establishing the Global Alliance Against Transnational Repression, signed on the spot by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, President-Elect of Belarus. The declaration has the formal endorsement of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and Canada is actively advocating for its adoption among G7 partners.
The session brought together diplomats, policymakers, civil society leaders and journalists to examine the escalating campaign of transnational repression by Russian and Belarusian authorities against exiled opposition figures, journalists and human rights defenders living across Europe as well as other regions.
The central argument that emerged is that transnational repression is not primarily a migration or human rights issue. It is a security issue as it is an attempt to erode democratic nations’ sovereignty and bar freedom of speech. And that for those targeted, transnational repression is not a single one-off incident. It is a permanent condition purposely marring their quality of life and aiming to silence journalists. That reality demands a systemic response, not a reactive one.
Russian independent journalist Irina Babloyan, herself a survivor of transnational repression, put it directly: the people who attempted to poison her operate from the same infrastructure as those sending drones over EU airports. “We know how they work,” she said. “TNR is a security issue.”
Former EU Commissioner Vera Jourová echoed that sentiment: “Belarusian and Russian journalists are our allies against a common enemy. We need to think differently about supporting them to protect ourselves.”
Maria Logan of the New Generation Europe Foundation urged participants not to treat support for displaced journalists as a migration question, noting that Russia is targeting not only exiles but journalists, MPs, and MEPs who are citizens of EU member states who advocate for Ukraine and these journalists. Estonian investigative journalist Holger Roonemaa highlighted the underreported threat of Russia’s security agencies FSB and GRU’s recruitment of ordinary individuals inside democratic countries, paid to intimidate or harm.
The declaration signed in Prague is a first step toward the coordinated, lasting response that journalists and activists living under the threat of transnational repression urgently need.
