Belarus is breaching human rights: What are the EU and the Council of Europe doing about it?

By Paula Nörr, 5 minutes.

The people in Belarus have been protesting on the streets for over eight months now. Against the observation of independent monitors and heavily contested by the opposition president Lukashenko claimed the victory of the presidential elections on the 9th of August 2020. As a result, people started to protest peacefully against the election outcome and demanded the end of Lukashenko’s dictatorship. Alexander Lukashenko was elected as president for the first time in the first Belarusian presidential elections that took place in 1994. With a constitution amendment, he took key powers off the parliament in 1996 and two opposition leaders disappeared in 1999, presumably killed. Lukashenko was officially re-elected in three more elections that were assessed as undemocratic by independent observers and therefore not recognized by most European Union countries. 

Last summer, the Belarusian authorities were taking excessive and indiscriminate action to suppress the demonstrations against the election outcome. Protestors were arbitrarily arrested, detained, ill-treated, or penalized when they were making use of their Freedom of Assembly and Expression. The Belarusian women, who became the driving force behind the protests and eventually the face of the movement, were specifically targeted by authorities, which supposes that women’s rights are seriously threatened by Lukashenko’s regime. Independent journalists, workers of media organizations such as opposition candidates were targets of politically motivated persecution and arrested or forcibly exiled before, during, and after the elections. The brutal and unvarnished repression of opposition related to the presidential election leads us to assume that the Belarusian government frequently violates the people of Belarus’s Freedom of Expression, Assembly and Association. But how does the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe as defenders of democracy and human rights respond to the human rights dilemma on the north-eastern margin of Europe?

In regards to the poor human rights situation, the Council of Europe established the Action Plan for Belarus 2019 – 2021, which is a strategic instrument that is supposed to bring Belarus’s legislative and institutional system closer to European standards in terms of human rights, rule of law and democracy. The Council of Europe Information Point in Minsk is meant to drive reforms forward in certain areas of cooperation, including women’s rights, democratic governance but also the dialogue between civil society and the authorities. However, Lukashenko once again claimed the presidency regardless of the objections of independent election monitors. The authorities continue to bring civil society back under the regime’s control by adopting harsh measures against public uprisings. Female protestors and opposition leaders were not only specifically targeted by the authorities but Lukashenko openly derided women as too weak for politics and clearly stated that women’s place was in the kitchen. Most importantly, the media in Belarus is nowadays practically under government control, which means that state-controlled printing houses refuse to print domestic newspapers that criticize the regime. Furthermore, international media outlets lack the accreditation to deliver uncensored reports from Belarus to the rest of the world. Overall, the recent events have shown that the Action Plan established by the Council of Europe did not make a considerable impact in practice and provided more plan than action…

As a response to the harsh action of the regime towards the protests in 2020, the EU has imposed sanctions on Belarus in October, November, and December 2020. In the light of ongoing human rights violations in Belarus, and to take actions against political and economic actors that support or benefit Lukashenko’s regime, these sanctions were prolonged until 28 February 2022 last February. Before the presidential election in 2020, the EU had been negotiating with Belarus on its bilateral relationship and a strategic cooperation framework since 2016. At the same time, the EU has been the largest grant donor in Belarus aiming at the improvement of the quality of life of Belarusian citizens by financially strengthening Belarus’s economy, governance, and society. In 2020, the Commission eventually changed its course and stepped towards targeted financial packages to specifically assist civil society, media, but also enterprises in the fight against state repression. The fact that opposition leaders were already killed in 1999 and that the EU criticized the flawed elections in Belarus since 2001 supposes that the EU did not take adequate or sufficient measures for quite a long time.

As the fourth power in a democracy, the press and news media are an important tool to bring a structural change in Belarus by putting immense public pressure on Lukashenko and its supporters from the in- and outside and broaden the opposition. Therefore, the independent media and digital outlets should receive more financial support from EU funds. But of course, this only works out if the EU and other international actors consistently continue and, if necessary, strengthen, the sanctioning course until Europe’s last dictator is vanquished. Because what does it help if the Belarusian people give an outcry if the rest of the world does not react to it like it was the case in the last two decades? Therefore, the international community must continue to put political, economic, and diplomatic pressure on Lukashenko’s regime from the outside, thereby supporting its opponents inside. Otherwise, the demonstration of solidarity with the people in Belarus is a farce that does not change the poor human rights’ situation in Belarus at all and instead prolongs the legacy of Europe’s last dictator, the first and only president of Belarus.