FIDH and its member organisation in Belarus, Human Rights Center Viasna, have long and actively campaigned for the abolition of forced labour. In 2013, they presented their investigative report into forced labour before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, whose conclusions reiterated FIDH’s recommendations to abolish forced labour. In 2015, the UN further condemned ongoing violations of human rights and forced labour in Belarus. Pursuing their advocacy, FIDH and Viasna presented their findings to the ILO, which explicitly recalled them in its own conclusions, highlighting violations of human and labour rights and forced labour imposed by national legislation on certain categories of workers and persons, namely workers in the wood processing industry, persons in socially vulnerable situations, persons interned in “medical labour centres” and parents whose children have been removed. The ILO, recalling recommendations by the UN special rapporteur on Belarus, the European Parliament and FIDH, urges Belarus to take all necessary measures to repeal or amend laws which lead to forced labour.
Watch the interview with Valiantsin Stefanovic of Human Rights Center "Viasna".
Visit our dedicated page: Belarus, a dictartorship at the gates of the European Union
Read more :
- Belarus: new UN resolution highlights the country’s appalling human rights situation
- New presidential decree in Belarus uses fines and imprisonment as a means to "stimulate" employment
- Forced Labor and the Pervasive Violation of Workers’ Rights in Belarus
- UN Committee: Belarus should abolish forced labour