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Titre du rapport – FIDH
I. INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4II. LABOR AS A CORE VALUE… AND AN UNLIMITED OBLIGATION ------------- 11III. THE SITUATION WITH UNIONS -------------------------------------------------------- 22IV. FORCED LABOR ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32V. SUBBOTNIKS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 35VI. MEDICAL-LABOR CENTERS ------------------------------------------------------------ 39VII. OBLIGATED PERSONS --------------------------------------------------------------------- 48VIII. FORCED LABOR IN THE PENAL SYSTEM ------------------------------------------- 53IX. THE ASSIGNMENT OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES -------------------------------- 68X. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ---------------------------------------- 76Cover photo: Prisoners of the correctional facility in Babruysk ©AFP
FIDH/ HRC Viasna – Forced Labor and Pervasive Violations of Workers’ Rights in Belarus / 3
The FIDH and Human Rights Center Viasna Mission
The gross, systematic, and widespread violations of political and civil rights in Belarus have been the
subject of numerous reports prepared by both international and Belarusian observers.
to stress that Belarus is a model of social and economic rights by contrasting the robust guarantees its residents receive with the situation of residents in neighboring countries who suffered a number of economic upheavals following the fall of the Soviet Union. The government uses this phenomenon of
the “last remaining socialist paradise” in the region to frighten citizens with a scenario of turbulence in
the event of a change in Belarus’s political course. Experts believe that this is one of the reasons how
Lukashenko’s regime has managed to remain so stable.
FIDH and HRC Viasna have gathered a great deal of evidence showing that violations of the social
and economic rights of citizens, in particular their right to work and to be protected from forced labor,
are pervasive. The rights of the entire population are being violated both in statutes and in actual fact.
Moreover, orders and decrees regulating labor relationships that have been issued by Lukashenko violate
the international labor and human rights standards. In their public commentaries concerning legislative and other acts, both President Lukashenko and his spokespeople have made astoundingly cynical state-ments that are in sharp contrast to the persisting myth of Belarus as a “country of social guarantees.”
In June 2013, FIDH and HRC Viasna conducted a joint international investigative mission with the objec-
tive of examining work conditions in Belarus. The mission focused on
the contract system, elements
of workers’ rights
. To obtain the most complete picture possible, the mission visited Minsk and several other regions of the country.
Those surveyed included about 40 representatives of various population groups that have experienced the
most systematic violations of labor rights, as well as members of union and human rights organizations.
The mission tried to meet with the widest possible circle of individuals that have encountered forced,
compulsory, or bonded labor. Members of the mission spoke with students in order to compile a picture
of how Belarusian laws correspond to international standards concerning the principles and practice of compulsory assignments, and studied the questions of a required participation in “subbotniks” (see below); or of the dropouts, unemployed people, and so-called “obligated persons”, who are forced to
perform socially useful labor; with prisoners forced to work in detention centers like penal colonies and
labor centers for people sentenced for drug or alcohol treatment; and with members of the transportation
and other troops of the Ministry of Defence
The mission visited the village Staroselie in the Goretsky District of the Mahilyow Region where a women’s Medical-Labour center is situated, and observed how inmates were ferried around from
various work places.The mission also met with representatives of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, the
Belarusian Union of Workers in the Radio Electronic Industry and other branches of the economy. In Miklashevichi, the mission met with a group of workers who lost their jobs and have been persecuted
for attempting to create an independent union at the Granit Plant.
Members of the mission, which took place from June 24 – 30, 2013, included Valentin Stefanovich,
deputy chairman of HRC Viasna; Artak Kirakosyan, chairman of the board of the Civil Society Institute
(Armenia); Sergey Mikheev, a lawyer at the Anti-Discrimination Center Memorial (Russia); and Alexandra
Koulaeva, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk at FIDH (France).
FIDH and HRC Viasna heartily thank all the NGOs and experts who provided valuable expertise and useful contacts which permitted this report to be concluded, in particular the associations Belarusian
Helsinki Committee, “Platform Innovation” and “Solidarity” as well as Belarusian Congress of Democratic
Trade Unions, Belarusian Union of Workers in the Radio Electronic Industry and International Trade
Union Confederation (ITUC).