Potential benefits and the need to adopt a dedicated law on volunteering
There is currently no legislative act in Belarus that comprehensively regulates volunteer activities. As seen in Armenia and Moldova, such laws are an important step to promote people’s engagement and support civil society Now, the Standing Committee on Health Care, Physical Education, Family and Youth Policy of the House of Representatives announced its intention to include the development of a law on volunteering in the legislative activity plan for 2026.
The draft law "On Volunteer Activity" would also include provisions on work, insurance, food supply and provision of equipment and in general standardise the volunteering process.
Currently, the term "volunteer" is mentioned in the laws on social services, on physical culture and sports, on the Belarusian Red Cross Society, on the donation of blood and its components, as well as in the recently adopted Law “On Responsible Treatment of Animals”. In each of them, the terms "volunteer" and "volunteer activity" apply only to the limited scope of each law. With a lack of general definition, many issues related to volunteering remain unregulated. Some public associations and CSOs have their own experience of internal regulation of volunteering, including on the basis of agreements on volunteer work concluded with volunteers, internal organisational regulations and others.
The draft law will create conditions for wider public engagement in volunteering and support the growth of volunteer organisations in Belarus.
The discussion on regulating volunteering started in 2019
The discussion on regulating volunteering started in 2019
Plans for a volunteering law emerged in 2019, when the development of such a law was included in the plan for preparing draft laws for 2020. At the time, the drafts were subject to broad public participation, including two rounds of public consultation. In April 2020, the Ministry of Justice initiated the collection of proposals on the general concept of the draft law from CSOs and other stakeholder (receiving 24 proposals. Later, the text of the developed bill was submitted for discussion (receiving further 151 proposals). While some CSOs supported the law, many other experts spoke out in favour of different approaches (in particular, by enshrining the concept of volunteering in the Civil Code and regulating issues of social insurance and taxation in in the relevant special legislation).
The draft law developed in 2020 drew extensively on proposals from Belarusian CSOs and experts and took into account international practices. Among other things, the justification for the draft law referenced the report Volunteering: European practice of regulation, prepared by ECNL at the request of Belarusian organisations. The report presented a broad overview of possible models and approaches to the legal regulation of volunteer activities.
Next steps
During the initial drafting of this bill in 2019-2020, there were concerns that it might restrict opportunities for CSOs, by introducing mandatory regulations on volunteering. Now, in the contexts significant restrictions on on freedom of association, the expectations are rather positive - it might create a legal field for volunteer initiatives that emerge in place of previously forcibly liquidated CSOs. We can expect the formalisation of volunteer activities of the labour staff of commercial companies working within the framework of corporate social responsibility. In addition, formalising the criteria of “volunteer” may help to consolidate ties with supporters for those CSOs that exist in the form of non-member types of legal entities (foundations and especially institutions), which are easier to register than member-based association forms.