Human rights in Belarus

Human rights in Belarus have been described as "poor". The Belarusian government is criticized for human rights violations and its persecution of non-governmental organisations, independent journalists, national minorities, and opposition politicians. In a testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labeled Belarus as one of the world's six "outposts of tyranny". In response, the Belarusian government called the assessment "quite far from reality". The Viasna Human Rights Centre lists 11 political prisoners currently detained in Belarus. Among them is the human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, Vice President of International Federation for Human Rights and head of Viasna.

In 2014 Lukashenko announced the introduction of new law that will prohibit kolkhoz workers (around 9% of total work force) from leaving their jobs at will — change of job and living location will require permission from governors. The law was compared with serfdom by Lukashenko himself. Similar regulations were introduced for the forest industry in 2012.

Lukashenko has described himself as having an "authoritarian ruling style". Western countries have described Belarus under Lukashenko as a dictatorship; the government has accused the same Western powers of trying to oust Lukashenko. The Council of Europe has barred Belarus from membership since 1997 for undemocratic voting and election irregularities in the November 1996 constitutional referendum and parliament by-elections.

Belarus, as one of the founders of the UN, is a participant of most of the international human rights instruments and aspires to fully comply with its international obligations in this sphere. In May 2010 Belarus was subject to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) — an ongoing mechanism of the main UN human rights agency — the UN Human Rights Council, created for the purpose of systematic and comprehensive analysis of the situation in the sphere of human rights in all UN member states. Interactive discussion within the framework of the UPR of Belarus demonstrated high interest in the experience of Belarus in the sphere of the whole complex of human rights. Over 30 states, representing all regions of the world, clearly and unequivocally approved the policy of the Belarusian state on the motivation and protection of human rights. UN member states highly appreciated the success of Belarus in the sphere of providing social and economic rights, including the right to education, health protection, social protection, gender equality, state support of the family, motivation of children’s rights. On the international arena Belarus implements a multifaceted foreign policy that best corresponds to the goals of national development.

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