Belarus

Key priorities to improve the civil society environment:

1. Release all individuals recognized as political prisoners and stop all politically-motivated criminal cases and investigations;
2. Abolish the Law ‘On the Countering of Extremism’ and all by-laws adopted under it, especially the Index of Extremist Formations and the Index of Extremist Materials;
3. Cancel criminal responsibility for organising and participating in the activities of an unregistered organisation (Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code) and abolish the ban on the activities of public associations without registration;
4. Stop the practice of forced termination of CSOs and restore the real opportunities to operate for previously forced terminated in 2020-2024 public associations, foundations and private institutions, trade unions and its independent association, religious organizations and oppositional political parties also;
5. Cease all forms of repression and discrimination against protesters, representatives of the opposition and CSOs, including mass administrative and criminal prosecution of activists inside the country and abroad in absentia, abuse of investigative powers, searches, seizures of data and communication devices, fines, arrests, the freezing of assets, and forced public disclosure in the media (including social media) of personal data during investigations or arrests;
6. Eliminate legislative possibilities and the practice of internet disruption and the blocking of websites without court decisions;
7. Cease the misuse of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) legislation and investigative powers in hate speeches crimes to restrict freedom of expression and freedom of thought, as well as to restrict access to funding from abroad for charities, human rights and humanitarian CSOs.

Country context and important trends relevant to the civil society environment:

The campaign on termination of CSOs has continued in 2024 (but with a trend towards the end of the liquidation campaign at the very end of the year) and resulted in the termination of activities of almost half of the CSOs that existed in the country in 2020. The termination of republican (i.e. national level) public associations that had not amended their charters in accordance with the requirements of the updated in 2023 version of the law “On Public Associations” was a special factor in the intensification of this campaign: justice agencies warned organizations about the need for public associations to have organizational entities in all regions of the country in accordance with the new requirements, or, if the organization cannot comply with this requirement of the law, submit documents to amend the charters and transform from a republican to a local public association. Those organizations that had amended their charters most often did not face any impediments from the authorities - refusals to register such a change in status were rare. But many public associations just ignored this requirement of the law and did not take any action – after short warnings, the justice authorities filed lawsuits in court for termination of these organizations, which were satisfied by the courts. For many organizations, such a termination as a result of conscious non-compliance with the requirements of the law became a way to deliberately stop operating (just as many other CSOs made their own decisions about forced voluntary dissolution, seeing no opportunity to work towards the implementation of their mission or under pressure from the government agencies).

The process of registering new organizations is extremely slow and unable to compensate for the decrease of the public sector as a result of coerced involuntary termination or forced voluntary dissolution. In 2021-2024, according to rough estimates, one new CSO was registered per 10 terminated ones.

The Belarusian government has begun to pay more attention to the creation of internal financial sources to support the activities of CSOs that survived in the country. The mechanisms for state funding of civil and youth initiatives enshrined in law in 2022-2023 were in 2024 supplemented by amendments to the legal regulation of internal sponsorship aid from corporate sources, which fundamentally changed the list of purposes and, in fact, allowed all public associations to receive donations from business entities for any purposes enshrined in the charters of these public associations. Opportunities for state social contracting for NCO that have retained their registration are also expanding. However, inequality remains in this area - loyal CSOs have greater access to state and private support than independent CSOs and initiatives.

The reduction in the opportunities for CSOs to raise funds through the provision of services has been a negative trend. This has resulted from the abuse of licensing and veiled licensing, which has been particularly evident in the decrease in the number of private entities that have licenses to provide social and educational services.

At the same time, state agencies are battling foreign funding. Along with the continuation of criminal prosecution under the pretext of combating the funding of extremist formations,  hundreds of people who received aid for political prisoners from abroad were prosecuted in 2024 (including dozens of criminal cases). The expansion of the scope of application of criminal liability for violating the procedure for receiving foreign aid undertaken in 2024 was within the same direction: the authorities have extended the application of Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code, which has been rarely used so far, to a wider area, including not only violations in using foreign aid, but also violations in receiving aid. The awaited law “On Foreign Gratuitous Aid”, which is supposed to replace the current decree No. 7 “On Foreign Gratuitous Aid”, has remained only as a prospect - its draft has not so far been released to the public, and there are many insinuations regarding its content among the public (including talks about the reception of the system for regulation of “foreign agents” like in some other countries).

The authorities often apply criminal prosecution against Belarusian CSOs located abroad (especially those created in neighbouring countries or relocated there after liquidation and persecution in Belarus), justifying it through the arbitrary inclusion of such organizations in the lists of extremist formations by the MIA or KDB decision, as well as through declaring them terrorist organizations by a court decision on a claim by the prosecutor's office (applied to organizations assisting Belarusian combatants and their units in Ukraine). The practice of criminal cases in absentia against activists of such foreign-based organizations and the emigrant part of the opposition has significantly expanded, when harsh criminal sentences to long prison terms are handed down in absentia, without the presence of the accused.

In general, the gap between CSOs in Belarus and the foreign part of Belarusian civil society is growing both in terms of their legal status and the focus of their activities. Belarusian CSOs abroad, being located in other jurisdictions, face different conditions and a different set of legal problems than CSOs inside the country. Foreign CSOs live in accordance with the laws of other countries, adapt to them, develop in different conditions under the influence of other factors, and as a result, take different forms and develop their own scale of priorities and vision of challenges, compared to CSOs inside the country. When stagnation and stasis, freezing of development and transition to latent forms are characteristic of CSOs inside the country, CSOs abroad are characterized by a search for space for activity in the country of their new location and an increasing focus on target groups in new countries (including the Belarusian diaspora), when beneficiaries inside the country are considered more as a passive audience and, at best, as beneficiaries, but not as implementers or partners.

All of CSO Meter's 2023 recommendations remain valid and relevant as none of them have been implemented. The only expansion of possible purposes for CSOs to receive donations from domestic sources was an essencial positive change in line with recommendations, but it did not modify the very approach of defining in the legislation only a closed list of permitted purposes, not the recommended opposite approach of defining the list of forbidden purposes.

Video story

In what ways has CSO Meter proven to be useful when CSOs face extreme restrictions in Belarus? Find out more from our video below: