Belarus: Court hands down 7 years prison sentence for authoring human rights monitoring report
Systematic repression against human rights defenders and civil society continues.
Belarus: All forms of religious organisations may need to re-register
Draft law has been submitted for public discussion, with very short notice to receive comments.
Belarus: Draft amendments to laws on public associations and political parties published
New measures proposed in the bill would negatively affect public associations and significantly complicate conditions for opposition parties.
Belarus: Draft law “On Essentials of Civil Society” on Parliament’s agenda
The law would introduce special privileges for very few national-level public associations that have remained in Belarus.
Belarus: participatory budgeting to support local civil initiatives
Draft law introduces a new mechanism to better involve citizens in the process of deciding how public money is spent locally, but does not allow direct voting on which project to fund.
Belarus to establish a single charitable foundation under the patronage of the President
The new foundation is set to replace civil society organisations, which left the country or have been liquidated in the past 2 years.
Belarus: Government to conduct special risk assessment of the nonprofit sector
New risk assessment will probably not be part of the regular FATF cycle, civil society says.
Belarus: First criminal case is brought for continuing CSO activities after forced liquidation
The legal case is brought against Volha Vialichka, the head of the public association “Hrodna Children’s Hospice” after examination of the CSO's website and financial operations.
Belarus: Authorities move to forcefully liquidate independent trade unions
This can create legal grounds for the persecution of thousands of trade union members across the country.
Belarus introduces death penalty for “attempt of terrorism"
In the past 2 years authorities have listed dozens of Belarusian citizens as involved in terrorism and identified a number of organisations as terrorist organisations.
Belarus: trade union is declared an “extremist formation”
State security raided independent trade unions and arrested their leaders in Belarus.