“The is the first report in the UN history that is completely devoted to violations of human rights in the area of industrial relations”

The Report of the Special UN Rapporteur Nils Muižnieks on the situation of human rights in the area of work and employment in Belarus which is to be presented at the autumn session of the UN General Assembly has been published.

The Report is informed by two years of cooperation with the International Labour Organization and records factual evidence of forced labour, repressions against independent trade unions, restrictions of access to occupations, and the use of convict labour as a punishment for dissent.

The Report notes that, following the Presidential election in 2020, massive suppression of civil and political freedoms in the country 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 protest actions that flared up all over the country after the 2020 Presidential elections, and later on targets included all those who opposed the union of Belarus and the Russian Federation in the full-scale war against Ukraine started in 2022.

The categories of professionals who find themselves hit by repressions particularly hard include workers in the fields of healthcare, research and education workers, and culture, as well as journalists and mass media workers, human rights defenders, lawyers, athletes, and the clergy.

“Disloyalty” as grounds for occupational bans

It is noted that in the recent years the authorities have become more active in the State-owned enterprises, engaging in stricter ideological monitoring, stepping up intimidation and persecution. Family ties with people residing in the countries of the West, trips to such countries are seen as signs of political disloyalty and can hinder career growth or lead to the person’s dismissal.

Besides, the current provisions of the “anti-extremist” and “anti-terrorist” legislations are misused to persecute people for political reasons. For instance, people who have been declared “terrorists” by the State cannot have bank accounts or participate in financial transactions.

Political repressions lead to factory closures, mass emigration of skilled workers, and mass dismissals, resulting in manpower shortages which the authorities apparently try to deal with by using immigrant labour.

The Report also speaks of ongoing amendment of the legislation with the view of banning politically “unreliable” people from certain occupations. Prosecution under criminal or administrative law for lawful exercise of human rights or alleged ties with “unfriendly” foreign states has become common grounds for occupational bans. Demonstration of one’s loyalty to the authorities and commitment to the official ideology is now a prerequisite for finding jobs in certain sectors.

Inviting “work-shirkers” for “talk”

The Report notes that in April, 2015, the President issued the Decree “On Prevention of Social Parasitism”, providing for the imposition of an “anti-freeloader” tax on certain categories of jobless people.

In 2018, the authorities amended the Decree, deleting sections concerning administrative fines, levies, and mandatory work and introducing in their stead an obligation for capable jobless persons to pay full rates for utility and communal services. A database of capable jobless persons was created.

Since 2025, the Ministry of Interior has been actively summoning “freeloaders” to local militia (police) stations for “talk” or organizing visits to their homes by militia officers.

The past four years have seen an emerging trend of limiting the categories of people who are recognized as “contributors to economy” which has led to a growing number of “work shirkers”. For instance, in 2022, Belarusian citizens working or studying abroad began finding themselves on “freeloader” lists.

Besides, people who have been victims of political persecution find it difficult to secure a job which puts them under the threat of becoming officially listed as “freeloaders”.

The Report also points out that every year the Government of Belarus announces a public Working Saturday, the so-called “subbotnik”. Although, de jure, participation is voluntary, public sector employers interpret any refusal to participate as a refusal to perform job duties. So workers agree to comply, facing a potential dismissal, or make monetary contribution to avoid participation.

The Report draws attention to the situation in special treatment and prevention clinics for chronic alcoholics, drug or substance abusers, the so-called LTPs, where re-adaptation is to be achieved through work. Independent sources place the LTPs’ turnover between 5,000 and 8,000 people annually; however, the edifying value of such institutions is questionable. They allow for prolonged confinement and forced labour of vulnerable people who have committed either no offences or only administrative ones. Moreover, the LTPs are directly subordinated to the Penitentiary Service Department of the Ministry of Interior.

Administrative arrest as a form of political repressions

It is noted that the Offender Isolation Centers, i.e. facilities for detaining offenders sentenced to an administrative arrest for up to 15 days, are widely used for political repressions. These Centers are notorious for their inhuman confinement conditions and willful mistreatment of inmates.

There have reports that Isolation Center convicts are forced to work in cemeteries, vegetable storage facilities, military memorials, and dump sites in anti-sanitary and unsafe conditions. If convicts fail to deliver their daily work norm, it is doubled for the following day.

Belarus ranks eleventh in the world and first in Europe in terms of imprisonment indicators. The country has between 20,000 and 30,000 prisoners, including over 1100 people who have been convicted under politically motivated charges.

Convicts are not allowed to choose the type of work they are to perform, and those of them who have lost their freedom under political charges have to work longer hours and perform the hardest and most hazardous types of work. So, work is used as punishment for political convictions.

There are numerous reports of frequent injuries and deteriorating health among prisoners because of unsafe working conditions, the use of primitive tools and outdated equipment, as well as the lack of PPEs. Remuneration for this work is purely nominal, while refusals to work may lead to doing time in a punitive solitary cell or criminal prosecution under Article 411 of the Criminal Code (“willful disregard” for the penitentiary administration’s demands) leading to an extension of the prison term.

Independent unions as “extremist organizations”

For over 20 years now, Belarus has been under close scrutiny of the supervisory bodies of the International Labour Organization in connection with persistent violations of the ILO Conventions. Some progress had been made before 2020, yet the repressions that followed have completely nullified it.

Independent union activists face dismissals, arbitrary arrests, and criminal prosecution for taking part in mass events and organizing strike actions after the 2020 elections.

Amendments to the Labour Code introduced in 2021 allow for dismissing workers for absence at work due to serving an administrative arrest or organizing and taking part in a strike. As part of the repressions, for instance, all independent unions were banned and any association with them may lead to criminal prosecution.

The Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) whose President Aliaksandr Yarashuk is serving a prison term of four years was among those that were forcibly dissolved. As of May, 2025, 49 independent union activists have been branded “extremists” and 9 of them “terrorists” on top of that, 26 unionists still linger in prisons, and 34 have been released without rehabilitation.

Elena Smirnova, a representative of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP), pointed out in her interview with “Salidarnast” that this is the first report in the UN history that is fully devoted to violations of human rights in the area of labour relations.

“An important accent has been made on the issue of forced labour that does exist in Belarus today but has never been raised before. So, there is evidence that there is modern slavery on a massive scale in today’s Belarus and it is controlled by the State. I am talking about the penitentiary system, the LTP special re-adaptation clinics, and the so-called “freeloaders.

“In fact, here we have violations of fundamental human rights like the prohibition of slavery, the right to freedom of association, and the right to work – the right, mind you, not an obligation. So it is important to have this information voiced publicly from the rostrum at the United Nations.”

While preparing the review, the UN Special Rapporteur has also taken into account the information provided by the BKDP in our own report. Apart from that, we have coordinated the coalition report of the Belarusian human rights organizations and worked on a joint report together with three Global Union Federations: the IndusriALL Global Union, the IUF, and the ITF.

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