Belarus: International Labour Conference to spotlight the persecution of workers and independent trade unions

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In its 113th session, the International Labour Conference (ILC), organised yearly by the International Labour Organization (ILO), addresses the severe repression against workers and independent trade unions in Belarus. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Human Rights Center Viasna call on all ILO members to increase pressure on the authorities to ensure respect for the rights of Belarusian workers to freedom of association and expression.

Paris, Geneva, 6 June 2025. On 7 June 2025, during its annual conference, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is holding a special session dedicated to the persistent violations of fundamental workers’ rights in Belarus, including the right to freedom of association, the right to organise and collective bargaining (ILO Conventions 87 and 98). The session is organised as a follow-up to the procedure invoked against Belarus under Article 33 of the ILO Constitution in June 2023, which called on Belarus to urgently receive an ILO mission to assess the human rights situation in the country, and invited all ILO constituents (governments, workers and employers) to take appropriate measures to ensure that the Belarusian government cannot exploit its relations with any constituent to perpetuate or extend the violations of workers’ rights. This procedure was invoked following Belarus’s consistent failure to implement the recommendations made by the ILO Commission of Inquiry in its report published back in 2004.

"The relentless persecution of workers and trade union activists in Belarus remains deeply concerning", said Ilya Nuzov, Head of FIDH’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk. "The invocation of Article 33 of the Constitution, almost unprecedented in the history of the ILO, was a pivotal moment, which must continue to prompt decisive action from the international community to ensure accountability for the grave violations of workers’ rights."

As documented by Belarusian and international civil society organizations, as well as UN experts, especially since 2022, the Belarusian authorities have systematically violated the rights of Belarusian workers, including through the liquidation of all independent trade unions – the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) and its four members –, and the persecution of trade union leaders and activists, many of whom were threatened, dismissed, imprisoned, designated as "extremists", or forced into exile and prosecuted in absentia for expressing their political views. According to Salidarnast, an association founded by exiled trade unionists, 29 trade union leaders and activists, including BKDP President and member of the ILO Governing Body, Aliaksandr Yarashuk, remained unlawfully imprisoned as of March 2025.

"The state-sanctioned repression of dissent, including the dismissal of supporters of independent presidential candidates in the 2020 elections and especially the imprisonment of trade union leaders and activists, is unacceptable", said Pavel Sapelka, acting Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). "International solidarity must put an end to this shameful practice."

In light of the ongoing crackdown on workers’ rights, FIDH and Viasna urge the Belarusian authorities to ensure in all circumstances the rights to freedom of association and expression, including by fully implementing the recommendations made to the Belarusian authorities in the 2004 report of the Commission of Inquiry, and to fully cooperate with the ILO.

FIDH and Viasna also urge the Belarusian authorities to immediately stop the persecution of workers, trade union activists and civil society organisations, to provide adequate compensation for the human rights violations endured, and to restore all independent trade unions, ensuring that they can pursue their legitimate work.

The organisations finally call on all ILO member States to unequivocally condemn the ongoing repression against workers and independent trade unions, and to take all appropriate measures to increase pressure on the Belarusian authorities, ensuring that Belarus complies with its international obligations.

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