Is there slavery in contemporary Belarus?

During the 80^th session of the UN General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus Nils Muižnieks presented his report on labour rights violations in our country.

“Despite the authorities’ declarations of their commitment to economic and social rights, Belarus is not the workers’ paradise they talk about”, said Muižnieks.

The independent expert’s report is based on the results of his two-years-long collaboration with the International Labour Organization and records instances of forced labour, repressions against independent trade unions, restricted access to occupations, and the use of convict labour as a punishment for dissidence. The document states that the broad-scale suppression of civil and political freedoms, following the 2020 Presidential elections, has led to numerous violations of economic and social rights in the area of employment and work.

The first victims of the still ongoing repressions were participants of the massive protests triggered by the elections; they were followed by those who opposed the alliance of Belarus with the Russian Federation in the full-scale war against Ukraine started in 2022.

Among those who were hit particularly hard by the repressions are certain categories of professionals, including healthcare workers, research and education workers, culture workers, reporters and mass media workers, human rights defenders, lawyers, athletes, and the clergy.

In his presentation, the Special Rapporteur also raised the issues of the lack of loyalty to the authorities used as grounds for banning people from their occupations, the fight against the so-called “free-loaders”, compulsory involvement in voluntary community work, forced labour in curative labour health improvement facilities for rehabilitation of individuals suffering from substance abuse.

In addition to that, the Report says that, for more than 20 years now, Belarus has been under close scrutiny of the ILO supervisory bodies in connection with the ongoing violations of the core ILO Conventions. Independent trade union activists face dismissals, arbitrary arrests, and criminal prosecution for their participation in the mass protests and for organizing strike actions after the elections.

The amendments to the Labour Code adopted in 2021 allow for dismissing workers for their absence in the workplace caused by their being under administrative arrests or their involvement in organizing and taking part in strike actions. In particular, the repressions have led to the dissolution of independent trade unions, and now any connection with them is seen as a criminal offence. The dissolved unions included the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP); and 20 independent union leaders and activists still linger behind bars.

In her interview to Salidarnast, the BKDP representative Elena Smirnova pointed out that this was the first report in the UN history fully devoted to human rights violations in the area of labour relations; and the fact that it was presented to the United Nations was very important for Belarus. 

“Since the time the Report’s completion, several political prisoners, fortunately, have regained their freedom, although for some of them the release turned out to be nothing short of a deportation from Belarus without even proper IDs: the authorities had simply withheld their passports. Among the “released” prisoners were our colleagues: Aliaksandr Yarashuk, the BKDP President, a member of the ILO Governing Body, and a Vice-President of the International Trade Union Confederation; and Gennady Fedynich, the long-time President of the Radio and Electronics Workers’ Union (REP). I hope the report of Nils Muižnieks will contribute to the release of other political prisoners. 

“The report emphasized, in particular, the topic of forced labour that is still present in Belarus. And this issue has never been raised before. So, today, the country actually has modern slavery on a massive scale run by the State. Here we talk of the penitentiary system, the curative labour health improvement facilities, and the so-called “free-loaders”. In essence, these are violations of fundamental human rights like the prohibition of slavery, the freedom of association, and the right to work – the right, mind you, not an obligation.”

Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. These experts work on a voluntary basis, they are not UN employees, and they receive no wages for their work. They operate exclusively as individuals and are totally independent of any Government or organization, including the UN. Any views or opinions they present do not necessarily reflect the position of the UN.

Victoria Leontyeva

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