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“There will be No Maidan in Minsk”
(President Lukashenko, talking to the Belarusian Army leadership in Minsk on 23 February 2014 [1].
Indeed, Belarus’ steps to improving relations with the EU have, for the moment, not been accompanied with tangible improvement in the human rights situation. In his April 2013 Report [2], the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus concluded that there had only been “scant progress in the implementation of recommendations made by the High Commissioner [for Human Rights]” in 2012, despite initiatives by Belarus authorities to establish a parliamentary working group on the death penalty and a national human rights institution in line with the Paris Principles. The report indicated that the situation of human rights remained “precarious in general, grave in certain areas” and was “clearly affected by the domination of the executive branch over the legislative and the judiciary”. Although the Belarus authorities have insinuated that a number of UN Special Rapporteurs would be invited to the country soon, the invitation of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus is still out of question [3].
EU must reiterate the absolute precondition of political prisoners’ release
The enclosed FIDH/Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ note on the situation of political prisoners shows how the ten political prisoners in Belarus jails [4] suffer particularly harsh detention conditions aimed at breaking them physically and psychologically. The note also shows how harassment and control continue after the prisoners’ liberation, through their continued deprivation of many civil and political rights, their placement on ’watch lists’ allowing regular police visits, and even ’preventive supervision’, which carries more serious restrictions and can lead to arrest and imprisonment. This system of harassment does not only affect released political prisoners: it represents a threat to any active member of the Belarus civil society.
FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ call on the EU to integrate in its precondition concerning the liberation and rehabilitation of political prisoners the need for Belarus to take tangible measures addressing the systemic aspect of the repression, notably through the immediate end of harassment of political prisoners after their release, and the repeal of article 193-1 of the Criminal Code as well as restrictive legislative amendments to a number of Belarusian legislative acts (Law on Public Associations, the Law on Political Parties, the Electoral Code, the Code of Administrative Offences, the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus, the Law on Public Gatherings, the Law on State Security – See Recommendations for more details).
EU should prioritise civil society support and revitalise the Dialogue on Modernisation
Civil society support and inclusion
With the current warming of EU-Belarus relations, civil society participation will certainly become one of the most contentious issues on which the EU must remain firm. President Lukashenko sent an unambiguous message to the population on 23 February 2014, when he said before the Belarusian Army leadership in Minsk that “there will be no Maidan” in Belarus [5] and clearly warned that any attempt to attack Belarusian law enforcement officers would be “responded to instantly”.
More generally, the regime continues preventing the development of a democratic opposition, as illustrated by the obstacles to opposition candidates’ registration for the 23 March 2014 local elections [6]. As a result, 88% of the constituencies in the local elections were uncontested and in two districts the elections did not take place [7].
Recalling the EU’s interest in working with local authorities and strengthening local self-government, their lack of legitimacy and representativeness is problematic and should be addressed in the design of EU support.
The European Union’s commitment to support civil society in Belarus is unquestionable, as illustrated by the six-fold increase of its support since 2011 [8]. FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ encourage a consolidation of this trend and the accompaniment of financial support with all flexibility measures necessary to ensure civil society organisations’ capacity of action and the security of representatives of organisations – including non-registered organisations - receiving funds.
The EU will however need to take specific measures to address the multiple attacks against civil society. The case of Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ is symbolic of the arsenal of repressive means the Belarus authorities use to continuously harass civil society: dissolution of NGOs, legal intimidation including through taxation law, harassment and arrest of their staff members, impossibility for NGOs to receive funds from abroad without approval from the authorities, restriction on websites, etc [9].
Revitalise the Dialogue on Modernisation
In parallel, the EU should work on a review and reworking of the ’Dialogue on Modernisation’ (DoM). Launched by EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood Stefan Füle with representatives of Belarusian civil society and political opposition in March 2012 [10], the DoM aimed at “strengthening [the EU’s] engagement with the Belarusian people and civil society and to supporting the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people”.
Two years later, however, participants in the DoM regret the lack of strategic vision and genuine dialogue of the process [11]. The quadripartite aspect of the DoM, which had the ambition of gathering civil society representatives and officials from both the EU and Belarus never materialised. The DoM faced difficulties from the onset, with clear obstruction from the Belarus authorities preventing participants from coming to Brussels for the first meeting. In addition to civil society obstruction, Belarusian authorities have so far refused to officially participate in the dialogue and have sought to redirect the format towards a discussion among officials only, against the very spirit and original intentions of the DoM. Although the Belarus opposition is not against the process of the DoM, it has de facto not participated, while the civil society represented in the DoM is too heterogeneous to have a coordinated approach. More generally, the DoM has not served as a vehicle to reach the broader population. There remains an immense lack of knowledge and understanding of the realities of the EU and the Eastern Partnership among the Belarus population, which needs to be filled [12].
FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ call on the EU not to let the Dialogue on Modernisation become marginalised. On the contrary, the EU should seek to use Belarus’ interest in seeking stronger relations with the West to push for a revitalisation of the process, which should become a central element to ensure that the voice of the independent civil society is heard beyond the forum of the DoM. Concrete connections in the form of follow-up mechanisms to recommendations made in the DoM should be linked with sectoral negotiations and ensure the voice of civil society is considered at the highest level. An immediate and necessary first step is for the EU to demand the formal recognition by the Belarus authorities of the legitimacy of independent civil society and that concrete measures be taken to stop the harassment of NGOs and enable their members to carry on their activities.
Negotiations should benefit the Belarus people, not the Belarus regime
Visa discussions
The launch of negotiations on visa liberalisation with Belarus carries the prospect of the development of a number of cultural and social exchanges which can be decisive in getting European and Belarus people closer. These visa liberalisation negotiations will be led in parallel with negotiations on readmission agreements [13]. Given the current human rights situation in Belarus, weaknesses in the rule of law, and non-independence of the judiciary, such a readmission agreement would mean that migrants would be sent back to a country where their rights would not always be guaranteed [14].
FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ call on the EU to ensure that no readmission agreement is signed with Belarus as long as serious guarantees for the respect and fulfilment of human rights in general and migrants’ rights in particular are not offered by the Belarus authorities. An impact assessment should be prepared to evaluate these conditions and measures should be proposed to address shortcomings, reform the national legislation and lead to the adoption of relevant international conventions. Should these shortcomings be addressed, any future readmission agreement should entail full human rights guarantees (suspension clause, monitoring mechanism, and recourse mechanism).
Deepening of economic ties
In addition to announcing the launch of visa and readmission agreement negotiations, the Vilnius Summit Final Declaration also encouraged further development of sectoral dialogues [15] on issues such as economic cooperation.
Based on the findings of their recent report [16], FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ are particularly concerned by the fact that the Belarusian economy is still marked by a contract system imposing short-term contracts and insecurity for 90% of workers, by the absence of independent trade unions [17], and the existence of forced labour (’labour for the good of the Motherland’, “voluntary forced” labour and ’subbotniks’, etc.). This report illustrates the close connection between the two spheres of political control and violation of workers’ rights. Belarus authorities use the labour code and corresponding presidential decrees as repressive means against dissidents for whom the threat of job loss acts as a deterrent to their activities. The State has created all the conditions necessary to force different groups of people to perform labour and to make employed people as dependent as they possibly can be on their workplace and their employers, who are in turn under the control of the political police (KGB), ideological officials, and simply presidential decrees. In December 2013, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (CESCR) endorsed most of the recommendations of the report [18].
FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ believe that the EU should use the prospects of any increase of economic ties as leverage to obtain concrete social reforms from Belarus, in cooperation with the International Labour Organisation and by offering concrete technical support. Key priorities include the end of the State’s monopoly on trade unionism, the reform of the Labour Code, as well as the Civil Procedures Code and the Criminal Code, the need to implement the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association and Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations.
Recommendations
FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ call on the EU and its Member States to:
- Consider civil society participation as a decisive testing mark to assess Belarus’ willingness to engage with the EU as well as a sine qua non condition for a long-term improvement of the relations.
- Adopt a common position of the EU and its 28 Member States with a time-bond benchmarked Roadmap on civil, political as well as economic and social rights, as framework of any renewed positionning of the EU. A renewed Dialogue on Modernisation should become the main Forum for the follow-up and monitoring of implementation of this Road Map which should be drafted with the close involvement of civil society. FIDH and Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ would like to insist on the following priority areas:
Civil and political rights
– Releasing without further delay all individuals convicted for political reasons, who are imprisoned or serving other forms of punishment;
– Immediately stopping the persecution, arbitrary arrest or harassment of citizens for political reasons;
– Ensuring that all the country’s citizens have the right to enjoy fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and assembly; and taking effective steps to investigate any cases of arbitrary arrests;
– Repealing article 193-1 of the Criminal Code, which penalises the organisation of, and participation in, activities of non-registered public associations;
– Repealing the set of restrictive legislative amendments to a number of Belarusian legislative acts adopted in the end of 2011 concerning the Law on Public Associations, the Law on Political Parties, the Electoral Code, the Code of Administrative Offences, the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus, the Law on Public Gatherings (which further restricts freedom of peaceful assembly), and the Law on State Security (which allows for significant expansion of the powers of the State Security Committee, KGB);
– Registering the Human Rights Centre ’Viasna’ and all the previously dissolved organisations which lead pacific activities in the framework of the rule of law;
– Enabling freedom of assembly in law, through the simplification of the procedure of notification, suppression of the obligation for organisers to bare the costs for “guaranteeing law and order and safety for citizens” and suppressing the restrictions on place, time and procedure for holding events; repealing all other law which limit freedom of expression and assembly, with a view to bringing domestic law into conformity with internationally recognised human rights standards;
– Introducing a moratorium on the death penalty, ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and taking steps to remove the death penalty from the penal system;
– Taking effective steps to ensure the freedom of the independent media, both domestic and foreign ones;
– Promoting the role of the judiciary in Belarus and its activity without Executive interference; implementing the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; ensuring appropriate publicity for the judicial process; conforming with the OSCE Human Dimension commitments in particular in the field of the Rule of Law;
Economic and social rights
– Amending the Labour code, the civil Procedures code and the criminal code, and all other relevant laws, decrees and regulations to ensure that all of the discriminatory provisions are eliminated, in particular those regarding the work contract system and the situation of the most socially vulnerable groups such as alcoholics and drug addicts, and persons in precarious situation such as those recently released from detention, the homeless and the jobless, “obligated persons” and other groups who need reinforced social protection and care, rather than a discriminatory and by nature repressive arsenal, to successfully reintegrate society;
– Guaranteeing freedom of association, by putting an end to state trade union monopoly’ and by recognising workers’ rights to independently form and join organisations of their choice. Refrain from repressing and persecuting labour activists engaged in trade union activities;
– Granting the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus access to the country and provide him with the necessary assistance to perform his duties, including by allowing him to visit all areas, public institutions and facilities and to meet with independent civil society organisations as he deems fit;
– Accepting all pending requests for visits involving UN Special Procedures, including those for the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and for the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders;
– Implementing the recommendations issued by the International Labour organisation’s commission of Inquiry on freedom of association;
– Implementing the recommendations issued by UN treaty bodies, in particular in the concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued on November 2013.
- In light of the recommendations of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum concerning the Dialogue on Modernisation21, organise a broad public consultation with the civil society of Belarus and the EU to evaluate the Dialogue on Modernisation, clarify its strategic objectives, and lay the foundations for a renewed dialogue. This renewed dialogue should be inclusive, i.e. ensure the participation along with the EU and Belarus civil society and stakeholders of the EU and Belarus authorities. It should be the main forum to discuss in a comprehensive manner the political and social perspectives of the country and the EU role in supporting modernisation. In addition to this main forum, the EU should insist on integrating the civil society in all sectoral discussions, with the ultimate aim of bringing this voice up to the highest level.
- While visa liberalisation talks take place, take all possible initiatives to accelerate concrete measures which can benefit people-to-people contacts and freedom of movement, including unilateral measures aimed at facilitation of short-term visas for Belarus citizens. Condition the potential future conclusion of a readmission agreement to full respect by Belarus and the EU of migrants’ rights and human rights in general, and the ratification and implementation of relevant human rights conventions, including the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The EU should already work on an impact assessments to evaluate the Belarus’ and EU’s capacities to respect these rights. Any future readmission agreement should include a safeguard and suspensive clause as well as monitoring and recourse mechanisms in case of human rights violations.
- Support the renewal of the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus mandate at the 26th session of the Human Rights Council.