Civil Society: Between repression and collaboration with business

Vadim Mozheyko

Summary

In 2018, Belarusian civil society organizations (CSO) achieved certain success: section 193.1 of the Criminal Code was abolished; CSOs’ cooperation with business and the government increased, and the #BNR100 campaign turned quite impressive. However, the authorities continued repressive policy, business tempted high-potential human resources away from the third sector, and non-liberal populist CSOs achieved the most noticeable successes in advocacy.

Trends:

Notorious section 193.1 was abolished, but repressions did not end

In 2018, the abolition of section 193.1 of the Criminal Code (“activities on behalf of an unregistered organization”), which had a considerable impact on CSOs, was the major change in the regulatory environment. The section was added to the Criminal Code 14 years ago and was used to pressurize public activists, who could be sentenced to prison terms (1.5 years for Dmitry Dashkevich in 2006) or thoroughly inspected (like Alexander Burakov, activist of Viasna Human Rights Center, in 2019). Even when section 193.1 was not applied, it was still hanging over the CSOs, which were denied registration or were just at the inception stage, like a sword of Damocles.

The abolition of this section was one of the points of the agreed position of Belarusian human rights defenders regarding their priorities in determining the strategy of Belarus’ cooperation with international partners,1 and the goal of the 2009 campaign of the Assembly of NGOs under the explicit slogan “Stop 193.1!”.2 The House of Representatives abolished the section on December 19, 2018, which could be considered a victory of CSOs at first thought. However, it turned to be part of the gradual replacement of repressive acts, which undesirably brought them to notice of international organizations and Western countries, with lower-profile, yet equally effective tools of pressure on public initiatives.

It is indicative that the possible abolition of section 193.1 was announced by House Representative Andrei Naumovich on April 26 at the session of the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy in Strasbourg. But, in fact, criminal liability for activities on behalf of an unregistered organization did not go anywhere. It was simply replaced with administrative liability after the parliament passed section 23.88 of the Administrative Code, which establishes fines up to 50 base units.

The authorities still deny registration to a wide variety of organizations, such as the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party that has been acting for years as an organizing committee, dozens of religious communities of Jehovah’s Witnesses (according to their leader Pavel Yadlovsky, the Borisov community was turned down 16 times in 20 years) and the pro-Russian Immortal Regiment, whose registration was denied twice in 2018 by the Minsk city administration, and whose appeals against the denials were officially dismissed in court.

Harassment of public activists continues on other charges as well. In August 2018, two leaders of the trade union of the radio-electronic industry – Chairman Gennady Fedynich and head of the Minsk city branch, accountant of the union Igor Komlik – were sentenced to four years of custodial restraint and fined BYN 47,000. The court found them guilty of gross tax evasion (section 243.2 of the Criminal Code). Neither Fedynich, Komlik plead guilty.

Throughout 2018, Brest residents were protesting against the construction of a battery plant, which they consider hazardous. They filed 103 requests for permission to conduct 75 rallies, 12 pickets and 16 demonstrations. Only one meeting was allowed, and 96 actions were officially prohibited. Twenty-seven participants were held liable under the Administrative Code. The total amount of fines reached 798 base units (BYN 16,482). Three people were sentenced to 5-day arrests.3

Rapprochement with business: from opportunities to threats

Donor strategies have changed in recent years. Financial flows are being rechanneled in favor of government agencies and entities connected with them.4 This pushes CSOs to diversify sources of funding, including closer interaction with business. CSOs find extra funds, but this process entails a skill drain from the third sector.

CSOs’ cooperation with business is not limited to obtaining financial assistance. For example, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF-2018) became an interactive venue where IT companies and Human Constanta human rights organization acted as partners in the discussion of the future of the Belarusian segment of the Internet. The Creathon project initiated by representatives of the advertising industry is aimed at non-commercial professional assistance in fostering creative ideas for social projects.

Belarusian business can finance CSOs and individual activists directly. In 2018, Danone organized two seasons of Activia grants. Fourteen women’s projects in the areas of Active Life, Urban Studies, Media, Art, IT, Social Projects, and Business were granted BYN 5,500 each. Velcom supports the Belarusian Weekends initiative of the Kinakong project, in which films are post-synchronized in the Belarusian language and screened in film theaters (more than 20 films in 20 cities; 550 shows; 57,000 viewers). Companies and individual businessmen finance social projects in the Social Weekend contest with BYN 75,000 in the prize fund.

Businesses increasingly partner with CSOs by means of crowdfunding. In 2018, Belgazprombank made the all-time high donation of BYN 150,000 for the publication of uncensored five-volume collected works of Belarusian Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Aleksiyevich. Crowdfunding allowed raising BYN 14,000 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian People’s Republic. Contributions were made by BelaPAN, Cesliary, QUVALDA gaming platform, SVAJE.BY online catalog of Belarusian businesses and Moy Rodny Kut store.

Private businesses of CSOs and public activists are another actively developing area. The Press Club Belarus (Minsk), Urban Life Center (Grodno) and others provide premises and organize turnkey events for other CSOs, companies, international organizations and the diplomatic corps. These activities produce several positive effects, in particular:

At the same time, closer cooperation with business can lead to a drain of human resources from the third sector. CSOs’ organizational capacity growth achieved through professional training and experience sometimes stop at the barriers that still exist in the country. Companies are looking for workers (including for senior positions) with international experience, second-language skills, and experience in doing business in Belarusian realities, which CSO members possess.

For example, several people who previously represented the Interaction and the Belarusian Student Association now work at the Luch Watch Factory. The former academic director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS) is now the corporate affairs director at Danone. Employees of environmental, analytical and other CSOs have found jobs in the rapidly growing IT sector.

Advocacy: when the victory of one CSO means the defeat of another

In general, the year 2018 can be considered successful for CSOs in terms of promotion of their agendas and engagement of new people. There was some progress in advocacy, although successes of non-liberal populist CSOs are alarming.

The #BPR100 public campaign to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian People’s Republic was the major success. Of course, more still can and should be wished for, and the holiday atmosphere was slightly soured by some isolated incidents, but, in general, public activists achieved much greater success than in all previous years of Belarus’ independence. The authorities agreed to provide acceptable conditions (a site in the center of the city and free-of-charge services of the police and paramedics).

The organizers raised nearly BYN 54,000 through crowdfunding, and most of the contributions were made by over 1,000 common people. Thanks to the support of the mass media and targetologists in social media, the campaign engaged hundreds of thousands of Belarusians, and dozens of thousands came to the concert on March 25 in Minsk.

Pursuing environmental, urban, cultural and historic heritage goals, the organizers of local protest movements in Brest, Svetlogorsk and Minsk demonstrated a high degree of resistance, command of popular support and readiness for long-range actions. CSOs and local communities’ advocacy successfully opposes lobbyism.6

The capabilities and the scope of advocacy vary greatly depending on the area of engagement. Environmentalists use the possibilities of the Aarhus Convention, which requires public consultation, whereas other CSOs do not have tools for institutional inclusion in government processes. Their advocacy is confined within the existing barriers, and high quality campaigns do not produce significant results due to political restrictions.

This happened when the Belarusian Christian Democracy campaigned against discriminatory legislation; Legalize Belarus came out with their initiative, and Mothers-328 petitioned against the harsh prosecution for drug use. They failed to achieve the amendments they were striving for, yet their agendas were massively promoted in society through the mass and social media and community outreach, and their appeals were heard well.

Among the successes in the private-public dialogue, the Minsk Cycling Community stands out for its input in the recent amendments to the traffic rules and activities of the cycling coordination council at the Minsk City Council. Representatives of government agencies and the academic community took part in sessions of nongovernmental think tanks, including the Kastryčnicki Economic Forum (KEF), SYMPA, Ostrogorski Center and Liberal Club. It should be noted that President Lukashenko participated in such events for the first time in 2018, and made a speech at the Minsk Dialogue Forum (although the status of the Dialogue as a CSO is disputed).

RADA AWARDS, Zrabіli and Civil Society Champions contributed to building a positive image of CSOs, individual activists and civic engagement in general.

At the same time, advocacy successes of non-liberal and populist CSOs give rise to concern. Among other things, the law on combating domestic violence did not pass due to organizations of the Pro-Family Council. The six-month “Don’t be Silent! Stop Domestic Violence!” campaign and NGO Gender Perspectives’ efforts came to nothing.

The Immortal Regiment held its action in the center of Minsk in 2018, although its organizers failed to obtain state registration, but blackmail helped to achieve their objectives. Andrei Gerashchenko, Chairman of the Regiment’s Coordination Council at the Russian embassy, said before the rally that “the number of people will legalize it”. As a result, at the last moment, the Minsk City Executive Committee supposedly permitted the rally (no one ever saw the permit in writing), and Sputnik Belarus claimed, citing organizer of the action Sergei Lushch, that the rally was officially sanctioned. Anyway, the police did not interfere, and no one was detained during the Immortal Regiment procession.

Conclusion

The authorities decreasingly resort to crackdown on public initiatives, since brutality in relation to civil society causes undesirable rumble in the West (like section 193.1 and prison terms for public activists), but their attitude to civic activity and punitive actions (administrative arrests, fines and custodial restraint) are still applied. This trend will continue in 2019. The authorities will actively use financial leverage as well.

In the future, the skill drain from CSOs to business can provide new opportunities to CSOs, such as crowdfunding and a bigger audience formed of coworkers of their former employees. However, in 2019, the loss of experienced personnel, which is hard to compensate, will outweigh these opportunities.

In 2019, activities of non-liberal and populist organizations will be a big challenge for CSOs in advocating and promoting their social agenda. Successes of advocacy campaigns will largely depend on the ability of CSOs to respond to this challenge.