MARYIA ZHARYLOUSKAYA was born in Minsk, Belarus.

She graduated from the Faculty of Law, Belarusian State University (bachelor’s degree, specialising in “Judicial, prosecutorial, investigative activity”) in 2012. She received a Master’s degree in Law, specialising in “Legal regulation of foreign economic activity” from the Faculty of Law, Belarusian State University in 2013. Then she received her second Master’s degree in Law, specialising “In International Law and European Union Law” from European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania) in 2022.

From 2011 until 2022 she worked as a practising lawyer in Belarus in the field of business and tax law, besides, as an independent legal advisor based on a license issued by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus. Meanwhile, she also was an author and legal expert for Belarusian professional legal journals and informational legal systems (more than 500 publications).

Since 2020 she works as a legal advisor on human rights issues with the experience of contacting international bodies (petitions, individual communications (the Human Rights Committee), and preparing reports about human rights violations (country reports) for human rights international projects.

Since 2021 she has worked as a coordinator of the Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights of the European Humanities University and Legal Clinic of the European Humanities University as well as a practising international lawyer with strong expertise in Human Rights Law, International Law of State Responsibility, International Criminal Law and International Labour Law. Then, in 2022 she has been assigned as curator of studies and lecturer of “Commercial arbitration and Litigation”, “Labour Law”, and “Family and Succession Law”.

She has several book chapters, articles and papers presented at international conferences.