Who We Are
Our Mission
Our House works for social change grounded in nonviolence, respect for human dignity and public dialogue.
We see change as a long-term process of public learning: a process in which people test ideas, question inherited patterns of coercion and build the capacity to resolve conflict without humiliation or violence.
What guides our work
Three principles
Nonviolence
We look for ways to create change without reproducing fear, humiliation or coercion.
Human dignity
People retain their dignity in conflict, in difficult circumstances and in their encounters with institutions.
Public dialogue
Sustainable change requires the ability to disagree, listen to others and search for workable compromises.
How our mission evolved
From democratic change to a broader idea of security
Our House initially focused on finding nonviolent paths toward democratic transformation in Belarus. We saw civic work as a laboratory of ideas and practices, supported by horizontal connections rather than a rigid vertical structure.
Over time, repression in Belarus and war in the region broadened the questions we work with. For Our House, security is inseparable from human rights, human dignity and nonviolent ways of resolving conflict. A society cannot be secure if fear and coercion are treated as normal instruments of public life.
Nonviolence in practice
Peace is a system of relationships
For us, peace is not simply the absence of war. It is the presence of relationships that do not depend on fear, humiliation or coercion.
Within ourselves
Nonviolence begins with self-respect, personal boundaries and the ability to act without internalising fear or self-devaluation.
Between people
In families, organisations and communities, it means resolving conflict without intimidation, manipulation or the suppression of other viewpoints.
In institutions and states
Public institutions should solve problems without degrading people. The same principle applies to relations between states and to the treatment of people by the state.
Social learning
Change is a process, not a moment
We treat civic work as a continuous search for approaches that can change social norms as well as institutions. Some approaches work; others do not. The ability to reflect on experience, revise methods and continue the public conversation is part of the work itself.
Our work around Belarusian Criminal Code Article 328 is one example. Since 2018, Our House has supported teenagers and young people affected by harsh drug-related sentences while arguing that punishment must not include torture, cruel treatment or the denial of basic dignity.
For us, this is the point of long-term social change: not simply replacing one authority or one set of rules with another, but changing the relationships and assumptions through which power is exercised.