The Third Sector: Consolidating under pressure

Irina Dounaeva

Summary

After the events of December 2010 political repressions spread over the civil society, whose representatives took part in actions of solidarity and support for the repressed. A new impulse to the human rights movement was added by the arrest and trial of the leader of the human rights centre “Vesna”: Ales Belyatski. Campaigns for A. Belyatski's and other political prisoners’ support became evident events of the year.

Punitive activity of the authorities blocked the discussions on strategies of a dialogue between the society and the state in the third sector. The discussion “Strategy 2012” at the beginning of the year was in its wane in autumn. To some extent, it was caused by the politicization of the third sector and the transformation of the National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership (CSF EP) into a political organization.

The legal environment, in which the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worked, became even more hostile because of the adoptions of some changes and additions to laws on mass actions and public associations. But despite negative tendencies in this sphere the unfavorable for a legal status of the NGO bill “On noncommercial organizations” was not introduced to the Parliamentary consideration due to efforts of the organizations of the third sector.

In summer 2011, there were mass civil campaigns initiated through social networks against the personalized regime and the deterioration of the economic situation in the country. Without having exerted serious influence on the political and economic situation, they showed mobilization possibilities of new technologies and the presence of latent protest potential in the society.

Trends:

General characteristic of the third sector

In their relation to the authorities Belarusian NGOs can be perceived as a certain continuum, on the one pole of which there are organizations that have State support (Belarusian Republican Union of the Young, Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus), on the other – the organizations that are an object of repressions (human rights NGOs, pro-democratic organizations). The specific feature of the previous year was the pushing off of the organizations which were in the centre of this continuum into a risk zone by the State.

Before the 2010 elections most of these organizations (social, educational and youth NGOs, discussion clubs, etc.) could have been placed in the central part of this continuum – the organizations with typical difficulties in formation, development, legalization of donor foreign aid, absence of state support. At times, these organizations manage to co-operate with local authorities as they carry out a considerable part of the social order. For such NGOs the working conditions worsened, though they were not as considerable as for pro-democratic organizations.

As of January 1, 2012 there were 2,402 public associations (PAs) in Belarus. During the last few years, the total amount of PAs has increased slightly: 2009 – 2,225, 2010 – 2,325. More than half of all re-registered PAs are sport organizations – 53%, or 61 organizations (in 2010 – 39 %); 6 charitable organizations, 4 organizations that help the disabled, 1 organization of consumers rights protection, 1 organization of assistance to business, 2 organizations of shareholders rights protection. The obvious disbalance of the registered organizations in the type of their activities is connected with the state strategy of discrimination of those NGOs, the declared aims, and leaders that are not acceptable to the authorities for political reasons. As a result, the number of non-registered organizations and Belarusian NGOs registered abroad constantly increases.1

The statistics of refusals in registration are hidden. Among the “organizations denied” are the Youth PA “Young Democrats”, PA “Mahilioŭ Centre for Strategic Development Impulse” and sexual minorities liberation.

Legal field of NGO activity

Strengthening repressive tendencies from the authorities can only appear within the sphere of legal regulation of public associations’ activity. Lawyers of the Legal Transformation Center that have analyzed the legal status of NGOs came to this conclusion about the development of negative trends in 2011.2 Problems of organizations concerning registration, legalization of grants, and renting office space are hardly solved. The practice of unmotivated refusals extends; Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code – imprisonment for activity on behalf of non-registered organization is still in force. Public prosecutor’s notices on this article are not frequent but it is often used for terrorizing civil activists.

Additional difficulties for the traditional work of NGOs – organizing trainings, courses, and seminars – appeared because of the Educational Code that came into force in September 2011, since it does not consider public organizations as subjects of “further education”. In November, the changes and additions to the laws “On mass actions in Belarus” and “On public associations” came into force, which limited rights of citizens to participate in peace meetings and introduced new restrictions on financial activities of public associations (a ban on opening accounts abroad and criminal liability for violation of order of foreign free aid).3

Despite negative tendencies in the sphere of legal regulation of NGOs, one of the most successful public campaigns of 2011 is connected with them. In March, the NGOs initiated the drive for signatures concerning the bill “On noncommercial organizations” that in many respects did not meet the expectations and requirements of the third sector. The appeal supported by 112 organizations (more than 270,000 members) was transferred on March 9 to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly and to the Council of Ministers of Belarus. The result of the action, which was initiated by lawyers of the Legal Transformation Center and the Assembly of Democratic NGOs, was that the bill was removed from the Parliament agenda during its spring session in 2011. Moreover, they received an official assurance of the parliamentary commission that the suggestions of the civil society would be taken into account at the further work on the bill.

Also, it is necessary to acknowledge the participation of public organizations (International Educational Public Organization “AKT”, Belarusian association of assistance to children and young people with disabilities, other service NGOs) as successful in the working out of the concept of “social demand”, in preparation of materials for and lobbying for the bill “On modifications and additions to some laws of the Republic of Belarus concerning social service”, submitted by the Ministry of Labor to the House of Representatives on December 22, 2011. This bill fixes the norms providing the introduction of the system of a state social demand that allow public organizations to receive financing from the state for their activity on a competitive basis.

Dialogue of civil society and the authorities

In 2010, the subject matter of the dialogue was the conflict between supporters of the civil society “National Platform” and supporters of the “General National Platform” that suggested building the interaction of the civil society with the State, business and international communities under the aegis of the Social Advisory Council (SAC) under the Presidential Administration.4

The discussion of 2011 continued in the frameworks of the National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership (CSF EP). In February 2011,5 Belarusian political scientists under the leadership of Vladimir Matskevich (Humanitarian Technologies Agency – HTA) developed and brought to public attention a document “Strategy 2012: From the Dialogue Inside Democratic Forces To the Dialogue With the Regime”. Possibility and suitability of the negotiations between the State and the civil society were acknowledged in that document. However, in the political atmosphere that had changed after the presidential elections nobody took the negotiations with the authorities under the auspices of the SAC seriously: nor the civil society, let alone the regime, that after December 19 wasn’t concerned anymore about making semblance of the public dialogue.

The aggravation of the confrontation between the authorities and the democratic public induced the developers of “Strategy 2012” to formulate their vision of the way for overcoming of a split in the nation. “Cold civil war” (as the authors called the state of the Belarusian society at the beginning of 2011) does not bring dividends to any party and is destructive for the country. In order to overcome this situation it is necessary to start a negotiating process. The aim of the negotiations is to ensure fair elections in the autumn of 2012 and to form the parliament as a place of coordination and protection of the interests of the confronted parties. The discussion of “Strategy 2012” became the central event of the conference “Role and Place of the Civil Society in Strategy of the Future” (April 11-12). In spite of the fact that at the conference the resolution in support of “Strategy 2012” was adopted, a considerable part of participants wasn’t authorized to vote for their organizations.

The National platform of the CSF EP can be considered to be one more ground for the negotiating process. Representatives of the civil society gathered on October 29 to prepare the Belarusian delegation for participation in the third CSF EP (on November 28-30, Poznan, Poland). They developed and institutionalized the National Platform.

The conference adopted the “Memorandum on Cooperation in the Frameworks of the National Platform of the CSF EP”6 which consolidated the aims, tasks, values and principles of the organization and the National Platform activity. The ideologist of “Strategy 2012” V. Matskevich initiated the creation of an Interim Coordination Committee (ICC) of the National Platform (for realization of organizational functions between conferences) and became its chairperson.7 The adopted Memorandum fell short of difference of opinions concerning the strategy of actions of the civil society for the nearest future. Supporters of “Strategy 2012” defended a position of consolidation of forces of the civil society and politicians as a condition for negotiations with the regime; their opponents underlined that the major problem for NGOs was to preserve and develop the third sector.

The creation of ICC, which claimed to act as a representative of the whole civil society, made its opponents declare their position. Right after the conferences 13 leaders of the third sector addressed the participants of the National Platform with a statement that was published on November 4 by Nasha Niva,8 and which gave a new impetus to the discussion. Expressing “support of the idea of the National Platform of the CSF EP as a platform for communication and dialogue of the civil society organizations interested in the European vector of the development of Belarus”, the authors of the statement voiced their fears that the civil society could turn into a politically loaded segment and that the National Platform could transform into a political organization. The authors of the resonant statement paid attention to the necessity to observe democratic procedures in the work of the National Platform and its management: “The Interim Coordination Committee should provide the balanced representation of a wide range of public organizations and various regions of Belarus”.9

The decisions of the third CSF EP10 regarding the Belarusian agenda can be interpreted as a weakening of positions of the supporters of “Strategy 2012” in the National Platform. Vlad Velichko, a supporter of “Strategy 2012”, who had actively worked in CSF EP for two years, transferred his functions of a representative of Belarus to Sergey Lisichenko (director of the Executive Bureau of the Assembly of the Non-Governmental Democratic Organizations), Olga Stuzhinskaya (“Office for Democratic Belarus”) and Yaroslav Bekesh (ecological association “Green Network”). By the end of the year, the discussions about the Strategy had almost come to a stand still.

In September 2011, SAC ceased to exist. The decision of the authority to dissolve SAC was reasoned by care of SAC members, by a desire to protect them from “unfair defamation from internal and external opponents of a sincere dialogue”, by the desire to avoid a split in the civil society.11

SAC was neither unique nor new to Belarus. Social councils work under various bodies of state authorities, but representation of NGOs in them is insignificant and they do not have a real influence on the state policy. Though SAC included both representatives of the authorities and a number of famous members of the civil society, experts agreed that after its dissolution SAC “gave nothing either to the authorities or to the opposition”.12

As a whole, it is fair to draw the conclusion that by the end of the year the interest in continuing the dialogue with the authorities had considerably weakened. This can be explained by the fact that, firstly, the opposition failed to generate a consolidated political subject for negotiations with the regime; and secondly, the behavior of the regime made any further attempts to continue the dialogue meaningless.

Activation and consolidation of a human rights movement

Politically motivated punitive activity of the authorities led to the activation of a human rights movement, the participants of which quite often became victims of repressions. The activity of traditional actors – Human Rights Centre “Vesna”, Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC), Consortium “Solidarity”, Legal Transformations Center, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), “Charter 97”, etc. – was supported and strengthened by the movement of solidarity with political prisoners. Despite the danger, there were pickets of support, the actions on collecting used clothes, foodstuff, and sanitary products for political prisoners.

One of the main events in the civil society of Belarus was detention and arrest of the leader of non-registered human rights centre “Vesna” Ales Belyatski, and the lawsuit that followed against him on nonpayment of taxes in a particularly large amount. The court refused to listen to the defense, who explained that money which had been transmitted to Belyatski’s accounts was not his personal income but was donated for organizational purposes, and that donors received a full report confirming the use of funds, etc. The sentence of four and a half years of imprisonment in a reinforced regime colony with confiscation of property was passed on November 23, 2011. Actions of support, drive for signatures for Belyatski’s release, a successful campaign for fund raising for the imposed penalty demonstrated some growth of solidarity in the Belarusian society as well as human rights movement consolidation.

The public campaign of the abolition of capital punishment for Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov, who had been convicted of explosions in the Minsk underground on April 11, 2011, had a great influence on mass consciousness. The protest against executing the condemned by a shot in the neck became a part of the abolition of capital punishment campaign organized by human rights organizations in Belarus – human rights centre “Vesna”, BHC, Amnesty International, Consortium “Solidarity”. Within the frameworks of the campaign “Human rights activists against death penalty” a documentary film “Cause of Death – Dash” was made. Its presentation took place on July 29 in Minsk. The campaign for moratorium on the death penalty in Belarus managed to collect more than 160,000 signatures.13

Repressions against political opposition, civil leaders and activists produced a boomerang effect. According to experts, it led to the growth of mutual trust and consolidation within the human rights movement. Where earlier human rights organizations had coordinated the actions within the frameworks of short-term campaigns, they now reached the level of strategic cooperation and division of work between the organizations, taking into account the professional possibilities of each organization.

Civil campaigns and initiatives

“Revolution through social networks” is the most popular and resonant campaign of the year which included a number of civil actions of “silent protest” which were caused by strengthening anti-regime sentiments among the youth and sharp deterioration of the economic situation in the country. These actions took place regularly on Wednesdays in June-July 2011 in Minsk and regional centers of Belarus. The actions organized by initiative groups through social networks demonstrated a phenomenon new to Belarus, which is the work of social media.

Despite a demonstrative peacefulness, the participants of these protest actions were detained by the police and were subjected to administrative punishments. Such a disproportionate reaction was possibly caused by the fear of the authorities for a success of social media during the “Arabian spring”. In August, the campaign initiators, having felt that actions were played out, announced their suspension. Another reason to stop the actions was the fact that economic crisis saw an improvement.

The campaign “Stop petrol” began in Belarus in May. Actions took place after each rise in prices for petrol from May till August. The largest one took place in Minsk on June 7. Some hundreds cars supported by pedestrians in the streets blocked the traffic in the centre of Minsk for 2 hours. It took the participants, which protested against rise in prices for petrol and the decrease of the standard of living, only one day to organize themselves by means of social networks. The massive character of the protests made the authorities back down. But by the autumn this campaign had also fizzled out.

“Public Bologna Committee” (created in October 2011) is a civil initiative that demonstrated the possibility of a small group of experts influencing decision-making at an international level. Experts worked in partnership with students, educational, as well as other organizations in the country and abroad (national unions of students and the European union of students). The aim of the Committee was to adopt the program of real reforms of the Belarusian higher education.14 In the middle of January 2012 in Copenhagen, and on the basis of the alternative report prepared in the frameworks of this civil initiative the Bologna Secretariat recommended to postpone the question of entering Belarus into the Bologna process before the implementation of the European basic academic values into the national system of higher education.

Independent trade unions

Independent trade unions, as well as other non-state public associations, experience the same pressure from the authorities. The most serious problem for independent trade unions is registration. The licensing principle of creation and activity of PA, introduced in 1999, did not allow registering any organization since then.15 Staff ideologists of the enterprises together with the representatives of the state trade union intimidate members of independent trade unions, make efforts to destruct the primary organizations, and try to eliminate free trade unions while terminating labor contracts. The economic crisis incited an increase in the activity of independent trade unions, which, at the same time is meeting serious counteraction from the authorities.

For example, in December 2011 workers of “Granit” enterprise (Mikaševičy, Brest region) decided to withdraw from membership of the official trade union and created an independent trade union.

However, the pressure of the administration upon workers in combination with threats to their relatives incited 80 people to renew their membership of the state trade union.16

Independent trade unions, having possibilities and channels of influence on the situation in the country, can act as a strong player on the internal political scene. According to the chairman of the Belarusian Congress of the Belarusian Trade Unions (BCBTU) Alexander Yaroshuk “what the European politicians can not do, the European trade unions can do”.17 The statement, adopted at the 8th report-and-election session of BCBTU (December 14, 2011), contains the requirement to cancel the licensing principle of creation and activity of trade unions and to take measures against discrimination of free independent trade unions.

Conclusion

It is difficult to give a single estimation of the overall performance of the third sector: the organizations are diverse, they have various purposes and their productivity is in many respects connected with the character of the organization. Though all NGOs operate in an unfriendly legal environment, and while any non-state initiative is suspected to belong to the political opposition, the State continues to put up with social and charitable organizations, and communities of interests. Sometimes it even cooperates with them, which gives the opportunity to achieve the aims of such NGOs.

The positive result for human rights organizations and the organizations conducting monitoring of the legislation and infringements in the field of basic human rights and freedom is the prevention of deteriorations in the sphere of law and law enforcement activity. The sign of success of the pro-democratic politicized NGOs is not a certain result, but the very fact of their existence and continuation of their activity, because any activity in this segment of the third sector represents danger for the participants.

2011 was marked by some success in consolidation of the third sector: work of the National Platform (in spite of the fact that it unites less than 40 organizations and does not represent he whole civil society), an attempt to develop a joint strategy, united actions in response to political repressions, etc. Most of the popular and resonant campaigns of the year which were initiated through social networks and showed the protest potential of the society passed without the participation of the organized civil society. “Silent protest” campaign could have proceeded if it had been supported by the basic actors of the civil society who realized its importance only when the campaign started to decrease.