Background

The Human Rights Council established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus in 2012 by its resolution 20/13 and has since renewed the mandate annually. As in previous years, the latest resolution 55/27, adopted on 4 April 2024, requests the Special Rapporteur to continue to monitor developments in the situation of human rights in Belarus, to make recommendations on ways to strengthen respect for and protection and fulfilment of human rights in Belarus, to hold consultations with all stakeholders and to submit a report to the General Assembly.

The upcoming report, to be presented at the 80th session of the General Assembly in October 2025, will focus on the human rights situation in the area of labour and employment.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

For the upcoming report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur seeks input on human rights developments in Belarus over the past few years in the area of labour and employment. The Special Rapporteur invites all interested stakeholders to provide input on the following questions:

1. Forced labour in places of detention (penitentiary institutions, compulsory rehabilitation centres for alcoholics and drug addicts, etc.), including quantitative and qualitative data on the detainees involved; the types of labour they are engaged in; their working conditions (working hours, remuneration received, pension accrual, health and safety of workplace, etc.); the kinds of goods produced and the sale thereof; adaptability of labour activities to the gender, age, disabilities and health conditions of detainees as well as the possibility of exemption from labour due to these factors; and any relevant developments in legislation and policy.
2. Arbitrary or discriminatory restrictions on the access of some categories of persons to the labour market, certain professions, public office or government contracts (e.g., through inclusion in informal “blacklists”, dismissals, or revocation of professional licenses) in retaliation for their own or their family members’ exercise of civil and political rights.
3. The implementation of the right to form and join trade unions of one's choice, and the right to strike.
4. If any, human rights violations arising from legislation and policies which compel citizens to engage in compulsory labour, e.g. additions into “the Database of the Economically Inactive Population” (“the database of idlers”), “Saturday volunteer labour” activities (“subbotniki”) and public work assignments for those who have finished their studies, and measures taken against those avoiding such labour.
5. The human rights situation of migrant workers, including any data on the numbers of such workers, the sectors of the economy in which they are employed and the conditions of their employment.