Andrei Yahorau, Tatiana Vadalazhskaya: Conditions and development of civil society of Belarus

Conditions and development of civil society of Belarus

Analytical report on the monitoring materials: April-June 2011

Andrei Yahorau, Tatiana Vadalazhskaya,
Center for European Transformation

General political conditions and circumstances                                  

All the processes in civil society, starting from the beginning of the year of 2011, have been evolving under the influence of the number of political events, which set conditions and possibilities for the civil society activities.

The presidential election of December, the 19^th 2010 have became the defining moment, setting the general background in the life of civil society. During the election campaign major public attention was focused on the political processes and figures. The electioneering set thematic priorities in the activity of a part of civil society associations: organization of election monitoring, civil campaigns to support democratic candidates. Meanwhile the other activities of civil society structures remained in the shadow of pre-election events and received no coverage and resonance neither in the public opinion nor in conceptualizations of other subjects of democratic forces.

The events of December, the 19^th and the wave of repressions which followed have totally affected civil society: both structures and associations and single citizens, informal and temporary communities and associations. Firstly, detentions, searches and arrests have became the major circumstance of life and activity of many public associations and civil society activists for few months. Secondly, the wide wave of repressions and appearance of political prisoners has became a challenge for joint civil actions, in public associations have been taking active part. This also required to evolve the urgent actions, first of all the human rights ones, which were not pre-planned in advance. Thirdly, the general change of the political and public climate in the country has became a basis for an analysis and revision of mid- and long-term plans and programs, formulation and discussion of new strategic prospects.

Against the background of these circumstances have been evolving the processes analyzed below.

1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL PLATFORM OF THE CSF OF THE EaP

The National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (even though it was created within the scope of the concrete initiative) was conceived and built as a platform for forming and strengthening the circle of subjects of civil society, leaders and associations, jointly working to promote democratic transformations. The Eastern Partnership has became an occasion and possibility for creating such a platform, which could pretend to be a base for a legitimate dialogue with the Belarusian authorities in the long term as for the most important issues in the development of the country [2].

Activity within the framework of the National Platform in a period of April-June 2011:

1) Intensive consultations and formation of the further strategy of civil society actions after the events of December, the 19^th. Since February, 2011 on the basis of the National Platform of the EaP CSF there has started an active discussion of strategic prospects and organization of activity [3]. On 11-12 of April 2011 a conference "The role and the place of civil society in the strategy of the future" took place, on which a number of resolutions was adopted. The conference did not pass a joint strategy for the National Platform, but it became the base for forming the coalition for implementation of the strategy «We are one nation». In the following months, the coalition for the strategy implementation failed to initiate a negotiation and unification process with the democratic opposition forces and a broader range of civil society organizations in the country. Nevertheless, this civil society initiative has influenced the unification processes within the opposition forces which resulted in formation of a new joint platform on June 2011, the 29^th, (United Civil Party of Belarus, Movement "For Freedom", the party "Fair World", initiative "The Belarusian Christian Democracy”, The Partyja BPF, campaign “Speak the Truth!”).

2) Preparation for the third Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum in Poznan. Preparations for the third Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum in Poznan. On May, the 25^th 2011 has been declared the next call for applications to participate in the 3^rd Civil Society Forum. This year there were received 78 applications for participation in the Forum (last year there were 94). A greater number of applications in relation to the previous year among all the partner countries was received only from Azerbaijan. According to the selection procedure the final list of organizations that will go to represent Belarus at the EaP CSF in Poznan is being formed on the base of three types of recommendations: from the National Platform, from the coordinators of the thematic groups of the EaP CSF and the recommendations of the European Commission. On July, the 5^th 2011 there was held a regular conference of the National Platform of the CSF in Belarus, where has been formed a list of 31 organizations recommended for participation at the Forum in Poznan. The singularity of this year has become a marked activity of pro-state NGOs while applying for participation in the Forum. In particular, the applications were received from such organizations as the Union of Writers of Belarus, chaired by Nikolai Cherginets, the official Belarusian Union of Journalists, the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, as well as a number of industrial unions of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus.

The basic tendencies and results of development of the National Platform as a place for consolidation of subjects of civil society:

1. The National Platform has became a place for wide communication and coordinated decision-making activities on concrete matters, but it did not reach the level of strategic consolidation and hasn’t become the real actor of public transformations. Nowadays, the National Platform steadily exists as a place for joint consultations where a wide range of subjects of civil society can rather quickly and constructively work out a general, coordinated position on certain issues and get mobilized for its promotion. However, the circle of these issues is limited. First of all, it is a point-target reaction on urgent events or actions. While interaction within the framework of the National Platform at this stage does not let to make coordinated strategic decisions and long-term programs of development as these demand coordination of activity not in private, separate situations, but throughout a long time as well as require reorganization of activity of subjects and structures of civil society according to the general prospect of development. While in a more favorable period (before December, 19^th) the consolidated actions and decisions on the basis of the National Platform had a proactive character, then after these conditions have changed, the possibility of consolidation is limited only by the conditioned attitude: answers and statements that are the reaction to the actions of the authorities and to external circumstances.

The obstacles on the way of transferring to the strategic coordination and actions level are:

• Absence of a formed structure (formal and informal) of relations within the framework of the National Platform. Among participants of the Platform there has been formed a certain pool of initiative and active leaders. Nevertheless, their authoritativeness is low and trust to them is not high enough so that they could speak responsibly on behalf of the Platform and quickly react to challenges and possibilities, while having the support of the Platform. In the conditions of a wide and non-structured discussion it is impossible to make quick decisions and to act as a joint subject as between subjects of the public and political field.

• Principle of a wide inclusion in consultations within the framework of the National Platform turns into distinctions in the tasks’ levels, spaces of self-determination and action, claims and ambitions of the entering subjects. This variety, which is per se an advantage of the Platform, if there is a formal equality of participants and there are no other ways of decision-making besides consensus, becomes a retarding factor as for possibilities of a strategic consolidation.

2. The quantitative increasing of the number of participants of the Platform as well as growth of popularity and influence on processes in the country are slow. The National Platform is an open area with extremely minimized bureaucratic operations: all the delegates of the two previous Forums as well as all of those who show their activity and desire to participate in joint consultations are considered to be participants. With such an informal principle of inclusion the number of participants could be considered as the number of subscribers of the Platform newsletter (more than 100 addresses), the number of participants in various events within the framework of the National Platform (about 100 organizations-participants of the latest conference) and the number of joints to general statements and appeals (up to 50 signatures). While the circle of the subjects who have participated in the National Platform actions, at least in one form referred above, is intensively increasing, so the pool of subjects (associations and leaders) who constantly show their activity and initiative, hasn’t not practically changed since the moment of the first actions of the National Platform in 2009 (no more than 10 associations and no more than 15 leaders).

The Platform, despite its full vitality, has not received a wide degree of popularity not only in Belarusian society [4], but also among public structures themselves, as well as among other subjects who are traditionally considered to be democratic forces (political opposition, cultural and religious communities, etc.). The number of materials or even mentions about the National Platform and its leaders in the most popular mass media which do not belong to the participants of the Platform ranges from the total absence of mentions in the state-run editions to 1-2 materials on an average during the most active periods of its activity in separate independent editions - TUT.BY, BelaPAN [5].

The National Platform is most seriously perceived by the official European structures, in the first place by those that are directly linked to the Eastern Partnership initiative. For them, this association and its ability to formulate the coordinated position of Belarusian civil society (partly, at least) as on generally valid matters acts as a potential subject of relations.

The obstacles on the way towards strengthening the influence and increasing of the number of active participants of the National Platform are: the narrow understanding of the content and functions of the Platform by its participants; difficulties of self-determination of civil society subjects (organizations, communities, informal circles) as real subjects of social and political life; absence of a purposeful policy of informing and promoting both the National Platform and its leaders.

3. A number of think-tanks’ active inclusion in the activity of the National Platform and in defining of general course and coordination of actions has essentially increased their efficiency and potential due to their constant analytical support and in-depth studies of the ideas offered as the general bases. It was manifested in especially impressive way while drawing up a common course, proposals and the strategy of actions of the Belarusian delegation at the Berlin Civil Society Forum of the EaP (it carried on the tradition set up earlier). In the substantial description of ideas and actions participated: Center for European Transformation, Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, Analytical Portal «Wider Europe» as well as analysts of the The Assembly Of Pro-Democratic NGOs Of Belarus and Movement for Freedom. This fact created a possibility to prepare qualitative proposals which got through alternatives and criticism and generated the basis for launching a wide discussion on a high professional level. The professional discussion allowed the other participants to be engaged in the discussion and to understand more deeply the experts’ proposals so that then to independently assert the common position and to act. Moreover, the experts’ and analysts’ inclusion allowed to prepare the documents according to the necessary format and quality.

At the same time, the weak participation of various experts and expert centers in the joint elaboration of strategic proposals for the National Platform resulted in the current absence of a coordinated and accepted conceptualization on the further perspective steps.

The further development of the National Platform of the CSF of the EaP as a place of consolidation of the civil society structures requires: a) continuation of proactive inclusion and initiative in the processes of the Eastern Partnership, its formating and conceptualizing of the roles of civil society; b) continuation of the practice of coordinated positioning of participants of the National Platform as for the events and processes in Belarus; c) development of its own long-term programs of activity on the National Platform basis (participants or their coalitions) and increasing the number of supporters of the general strategy; d) establishment of linkages and relations of an institutional level with other subjects of democratic forces - associations and coalitions of political forces, trade unions, etc.; e) wide public circles’ informing on the essence, activity and prospects of the National Platform; f) formation of working bodies, elaboration and acceptance of regulations of activity of the National Platform, its representation on different levels.

EXPANSION OF INTERACTION OF VARIOUS SUBJECTS OF CIVIL SOCIETY (EXPANSION OF THE "STRUCTURE" OF CIVIL SOCIETY).

Difficult conditions of activity of any non-state forms of joint activity for Belarusian citizens make the task of such subjects’ interaction more important and valuable, not only in order to strengthen the efficiency of their own activity, but also to form and adjust such a phenomenon and factor of influence on public life as civil society. The force and influence of civil society depend on the quantity of subjects and union of efforts of the most various subjects: independent experts, journalists, of business, churches or religious communities, informal communities, non-governmental organizations, etc., as well as on the realization of their belonging to civil society of the country. Expansion of interaction of different subjects under the general name “civil society” and promotion of this name in the public consciousness is an actual, but quite difficult. In this context it is necessary to note several tendencies:

1. The category “civil society” remains rather vague and insignificant both at level of public consciousness of the country and as a possibility of self-identification for the actors. As researches show, the awareness of the activity of public associations is low (46,4% know what public associations are), meanwhile the conceptualizations about subjects of civil society are blurred. This it due to, on the one hand, the absence of knowledge about independent public associations, and on the other hand, with the presence of state support, including informational one, of the state-run public associations (Belarusian Republican Youth Union, “Belaya Rus” (“White Russia”), etc. Participation in public activity or events carried out by public associations is even less representative (no more than 25% of the population confirms their participation in such activity).

The word combination “civil society” is perceived even in a more abstractive way and it strongly depends on the context. This is due to the form the materials are presented in the mass media, using the category of “civil society” in articles as well as the fact how the subjects identify themselves and call as representatives of civil society. In the period of political tensions and actions of solidarity the word combination “civil society” was used basically to designate the ideological and civic stand of political and not political, individual and collective subjects. It was acting as a uniting category. Still, as for more traditional kinds of activity, out of solidarity actions, civil society is the name (and the self-name) of the non-political part of democratic forces; in the first place, public associations, networks and associations, while separating from these trade unions, informal communities, etc. This does not enable the comprehension of unity and necessity of coordinated consolidated actions.

2. Interaction between various subjects of civil society is mainly built according to a "sample" principle while public associations act as initiators of actions on behalf of “civil society”. Active participants of the majority of civil initiatives, actions, campaigns and activity programs are either separate public associations or coalitions of basically the same type of associations (public organizations) and of the same orientation. Cooperation of public associations with the mass media, and, sometimes and even more in recent time, with expert or analytical structures is the most often. However, it is often noted that public associations separate themselves from political or politicized structures; trade unions and religious associations rarely join such coalitions. Coalitions that include collective and individual subjects as equals are formed even less often.

The appeal concerning the draft law “On non-commercial organizations” (May of 2011) became the most wide-scale fact of interaction of a wide range of public associations of different types and directions of activity. The appeal was signed by 112 non-commercial organizations of various organizational-legal forms and directions of activity which unite more than 270,000 members. However, such a wide participation is fixed at the level of one-time interaction, and the prospects of any further joint activity are not high yet. An example of longer interaction of collective and individual subjects of different types on behalf of “civil society” is the coordination of actions within the framework of the National Platform of the CSF of the EaP. Here as well, however, there are no steady tendency and fixed forms of such interaction.

Despite the importance of the matter of growth of influence of civil society in the country and coordination of actions of its various subjects in defending the general interests, interaction remains rather weak. Mutual public representativeness and awareness on activity of various segments of civil society remains weak; comprehension of the generality of problems and of necessity of consolidation in front of the general challenges is extremely low; sporadic contacts and separate attempts of cooperation between various subjects are overflowed by reciprocal stereotypes. The problem of overcoming the situation of dissociation in civil society remains essential, but almost impossible to solve in the short-term period.

THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE STATE

Despite « the dialogue between the state and civil society» is being declared by both sides as an essentially necessary mechanism of interaction, there has been no real advancement towards it during referred period. Moreover, the perspective and potential steps and positions, which had been worked out by autumn 2010, have been almost erased by the events on December, the 19^th and the consequences.

1) Before December, the 19^th each of the sides offered and promoted its understanding of the organization of such a dialogue and its mechanisms. The state created institutions and "consultation structures”, which embodied its format of the dialogue, regulated according to the structure of participants and the themes with a vague and unessential mechanisms of execution of arrangements. This format was embodied, in the first place, in public consultative councils, which were created or became more active in various state structures (ministries, executive committees, committees). A complete, vertically organized system that would include a complex of thematic platforms of civil society in various ministries and departments and corresponding public consultative councils as tools of lobbying and advancement of public interests, should have become a way of fixing such a format. Legitimization of this system had to take place during the negotiations between the Belarusian authorities and European Commission within the framework of Belarusian-European cooperation development; there was organized a conference on the creation of another National platform of civil society held by Yury Zagumenov.

This proposal was positively accepted by a number of public associations and leaders who saw it as a possibility to promote their ideas and proposals and to influence the solution of certain issues. At the same time, another part of civil society, mainly concentrated around the National Platform of the EaP CSF, considered these mechanisms and actions on their introduction as an imitation and simulation of the dialogue with no necessary conditions and possibilities for equal and free participation. As a result of coordinated actions, the hasty attempt of fixing and legitimizing the proposed mechanisms of the dialogue was shut down.

Unlike the uniform position of the state, civil society didn’t demonstrate the same coordination in its beliefs and actions. The orientation on the dialogue with the state structures was shown, first of all, within the framework of local topics or specific tasks or problems. Despite special cases of success (in the field of protection of the heritage, ecological solutions, introduction of some articles in legal acts), as a whole, this practice can be called little effective. It was supported by individual qualities of the state officials eager to listen to certain arguments. Still, the facts of successful interaction did not provide any further systemness of communication.

2) The majority of attempts of the "dialogue" with the state concerning separate vital issues used to come to an end at the first step - claims and proposals from public associations which received no reply. However, rather steady interaction has been built concerning some matters. Unilateral claims and proposals is the most widespread form of the "dialogue" of civil society and the state. The habitualness and prevalence of this form leads to the fact that "applicants" do not hope to receive an answer and have no plans concerning the further steps. It affects the content and the form of claims and requirements which quite often are not initially planned to be carried out and to have the dialogue possibilities. At the same time, possibilities of interaction and conversation (with the further promotion of interests) exist in separate spheres when the state does not see any threat in this cooperation and can control the course of conversation. Such examples as interaction with the Belarusian Voluntary Society for Protection of the Monuments of History and Culture, Belarusian Language Association and Minsk Capital Union of Businessmen and Employers act as a demonstration of the presence and possibility of the dialogue. However, after the events of December, the 19^th even these forms of interaction are if not suspended, but at least are not widely advertised.

The problem of the dialogue between civil society and the state remains sharp. Right now, it is necessary to constate the unreadiness of both subjects for an equal dialogue. Civil society has not resolved the issue of uniform legitimate subjectness and the uniform substantial position in the situation of a possible dialogue. The current abandonment of the policy of the relative liberalization after the events of December, the 19^th has suspended the minimum forms of interaction of civil society with the state that, though does not demonstrate an absolute impossibility of a renewal of the dialogue in the near future (presumably, in autumn 2011). Civil society has received an extra time to strengthen and internally reorganize its relations; however, the attempts of such reorganization in February-May of 2011 were not successful basically for the reasons of subjective resistance and mutual contradictions between different agents of civil society (inside the National Platform of the EaP CSF, between the National Platform and subjects of the democratic opposition, single leaders, etc.)

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND INTERACTION

The international cooperation and interaction of civil society of Belarus is ranged between several basic levels: partner interaction with civil society organizations of EU and the countries of the Eastern Partnership, interaction with international donor structures, interaction within the framework of the EaP CSF, contacts with official structures of Europe and the European Union. The level of partner contacts not often gets into open sources and it is difficult to trace it. Nevertheless, there is no sufficient base to believe that the intensity of contacts at this level has essentially increased during the examined period. As for the other levels, it is possible to speak about some new tendencies:

1) Increasing the role of Belarusian civil society organizations in projects and programs destinated for Belarus. During the referred period, there has been growth of the value and relative weight of civil society organizations in the definition of priorities and purposes of the donor policy as to Belarus. Since the beginning of 2011, civil society organizations actively participated in conferences and meetings regarding changes in the volume and structure of the donor support of the EU for Belarus with the participation of high representatives of European institutions, EU member states, international donors (in February, the 2^nd (Warsaw), in March, the 21^st and in July, the 7^th (Brussels)). Coalitions of influential non-governmental organizations have become the subjects of planning and implementing major programs of support and development of civil society.Coalitions of influential public organizations have become the subjects of planning and implementation of large programs of support and development of civil society. As examples, it is possible to consider the program of support to the repressed people initiated by the European Commission in the framework of the Instrument for stability, Belarusian research and academic consortium with the support program of the doctoral research studies, the project of Organizational consulting services market and some others. The basic change is that Belarusian organizations are included in such projects and programs at all stages: from designing and projecting to direct actualization and monitoring. The reason for such changes has been the success of civil society of Belarus at the European level, including the visibility and effectiveness of actions of civil society organizations of the country within the framework of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership, the big visibility of coalition actions of civil society during the recent years (the National Platform of the EaP CSF, counteraction to the “verticalization” of the public-state interaction in August-November 2010).

2) In a situation of sharp deterioration of relations between Belarus and the EU after the events of December, the 19^th the Civil Society Forum has become the last legitimate platform for cooperation between Belarus and the EU. This fact poses to civil society in Belarus a number of serious challenges; in particular, the potential to influence the content of the EU policy towards Belarus through the Forum meets the weak commitment of civil society organizations in promotion their own proposals.The initiative and innovative character of actions of the Belarusan delegation at the I and the II EaP CSF has allowed Belarusians to keep the position of chairperson of the Forums. The proposed ideas of the "road maps", monitoring of processes, bigger substantial weight of offers of the Forums came put to be defining in discussions and decisions of the EaP CSF. However, the chronic problems of interaction of Belarus civil society within the framework of the structures of the CSFs were not solved; this fact reduces the probability of recurrence of success by the Belarusian delegation at the next EaP CSF in Poznan. Firstly, even the former participants of the Forum and the organizations of the National Platform have no understanding of the accurate strategy of their own actions concerning the Eastern Partnership and CSF. Secondly, horizontal interaction between civil societies of the countries of the EaP remains extremely weak. A positive moment was the meeting of participants of the National Platform with the Steering Committee of the CSF, having, at the same time, more symbolical rather than working value.

3) Rhetorical accent on the growth of support for civil society of Belarus in statements of the official structures of the EU. After the crackdown of the protests of December, the 19^th of 2010, the total number of official statements of structures and officials of the EU concerning Belarus has sharply increased. Besides statements on infringements of human rights, reprisals against civil society and political opposition, requirements for immediate release of political prisoners, there have constantly seen theses about the necessity of increasing support to civil society. In the EU, there have taken place several representative conferences on topics of increasing forms of support to civil society of Belarus (in particular, the Conference dedicated to Belarus in Warsaw on February, the 2^nd 2011 and a coordination meeting of donors and implementators of international programs on March, the 21^st in Brussels) at which it was declared about a substantial growth of the volume of financial support for the development of civil society. Nevertheless, concrete forms of help and implementation mechanisms of these promises remain vague enough.

It is necessary to note that the general concepts used in statements about civil society of Belarus, are quite wattered as well. As a rule, they speak about some abstract civil society; concrete types and names of organizations or names of people appear only while talking about those who have suffered from reprisals. This is the result of not only the weak knowledge of civil society of Belarus, but also of the absence of accurately expressed subjectness of civil society in the country. The same fact explains the practically total absence of motivated and reasonable diplomatic efforts on the part of civil society of the country in promoting their interests at the European level. Despite the constant presence of representatives of public organizations at meetings in the European Parliament, PACE, international conferences, etc., it is not possible to speak about the coordinated strategy of civil society of Belarus in this direction.

The period of successful actions of Belarus’ civil society at the international level in 2009-2010 has led to the strengthening of its international influence. Further development of this influence will be possible if there is a tendency on consolidation inside civil society, expansion of consultations and coordination of the foreign policy actions of civil society of Belarus both inside the country and in interaction with civil societies of the countries of the Eastern Partnership and international donors.

PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF INTERESTS, ACTUALIZATION OF THE RIGHTS OF TARGET GROUPS

During the referred period, from the beginning of the 2011, there have been working more than 20 civil initiatives of different types: from one-time, local actions on concrete issues and tasks to complex, permanently working campaigns aimed at promoting certain ideas and mass civic protests in the frames of "Revolution Through Social Network” [6]. There are among them: complexes of actions on protection of the architectural-historical heritage, on promotion of the Belarusian language and culture, the initiative on the organization of an independent investigation of the death of journalist Bebenin, the initiatives in the sphere of monitoring the presidential election «Fair Elections» and «Human rights defenders for free elections», the campaign “The Human Rights Defenders against Capital Punishment” (works since 2009), a complex of actions and measures to prevent the building of the nuclear power plant; a number of ecological initiatives; the initiatives of solidarity with people repressed during the 2010 presidential campaign and the repressions that followed as to the participants of the protests; the campaign on protection of the office of the Partyja BPF(“Belarusian Popular Front”); the collective appeal concerning the draft law "On Noncommercial Organizations", formation of the “VISA-FREE” coalition and others.

Analyzing the character of the organization, its methods of activity and the efficiency of these initiatives, it is possible to allocate a number of features:

1) After the 2010 presidential election the character, the type and the topics of civil initiatives have have changed. In the previous period, the bulk of civil campaigns in Belarus was concentrated on the cultural-historical, ecological and human rights subjects. After the events of December, the 19^th the overwhelming majority of campaigns, actions and initiatives have been substantially linked to the consequences of the presidential election, expression of solidarity and rendering assistance to those who suffered from the crackdown of the oppositional demonstration of December, the 19^th  and the actions that followed in June, "Stop-petrol" and "Revolution Through Social Networks" and also to those who have been arrested and accused of participation and/or organization of mass riots. These campaigns have their own features:

• Mobilization of wider layers of Belarusian citizens who did not belong to public and political structures;

• Individual participation and initiation of actions, instead of belonging to an organization or a party;

• Spontaneous and temporary character aimed at solving a concrete problem;

• Active use of a network principle of distribution of the information and organization of initiatives according to the network principle, using of social networks in the Internet for coordination of initiatives;

• Primary use of resources inside the country (of civil society), active attraction of material means of citizens.

A flare of such a kind of civil initiatives testifies in the right of the potential of citizens of Belarus who can be mobilized to solve tasks or to overcome problems that are localized, clear and proportional to individual activity of people. At the same time, the analysis shows that the number of such initiatives gradually decreases, giving way to more habitual forms of work on promotion of interests.

2) Even the most mass and active civil initiatives have insufficient information support. More often, the information on campaigns does not go beyond the scope of the mass media directly connected with the organizers (their own and friendly sites, newspapers). The appearance of the messages concerning civil initiatives in a wide range of the mass media is, at best, singular. The exception is a complex of actions of the antinuclear problematics and counteraction to the building of the nuclear power station as well as protest actions "Stop-petrol" and "Revolution Through Social Networks" traditionally widely covered by media. Still, its development, course and results are presented even less often in the mass media. More frequently, it is possible to find only information on applies on organization or implementation of an action. In the state-run mass media, the information on such initiatives and campaigns of civil society is not presented at all even in the negative light.

Such an informational policy narrows the possibilities of a wider range of subjects to join the initiatives, it also it does not allow the activity of civil society to become a visible phenomenon in the country’s life, and the positive cases do not become known to the public.

3) Organization and active participation in initiatives on promotion of interests are often limited by a narrow circle of public associations and structures (sometimes it is even one structure); it isn’t considered to have a wide connection neither with other associations nor with wide public. The majority of initiatives "belong" to one or several structures; coalitions of associations of a certain type and a thematic direction are less; there are practically no coalitions and campaigns uniting subjects of different types - NGOs, party structures, trade unions, etc. The appeal concerning the draft law "On Noncommercial Organizations" became the most wide-scale fact of interaction of a wide range of public associations of different types and directions of activity, which can be explained, on the one hand, by the topic that is important for many people, and, on the other hand, by the purposeful work of the initiators to draw a wide range of the interested subjects. As the initiatives which have arisen after December, the 19^th have shown, solidarity and interaction are revealed more often and more effectively at the individual level, rather than at the level of structures and organizations. The obstacles on the way to display solidarity and to widen the structure of participants of civil initiatives are:

• Politicization of the public life. Many organizations of an entertainment, cultural and social orientation are beware of cooperation and interaction with public associations that claim to have a democratic orientation and especially, with openly political structures. A different political orientation can also become a ground to refuse interaction.

• Thematic limitation of activity of the majority of public associations. It does not allow to display solidarity with the activity on other topics and to reach the level of shared problems. It is supplemented by difficult conditions of survival of public associations which do limit resources - temporal, human, and financial ones.

• Difficulties of compatibility of spontaneous initiatives and civil participation at the individual level with activity of organizations and associations.

4) The most widespread methods and forms of advancement of interests are drives for signatures for requirements, petitions and claims, distribution of informational materials, pickets, protection of interests through legal procedures. Among the creative, but rarely used methods have been attraction of well-known people (the campaign against the capital punishment), organization of public hearings (ecological initiatives), organization of cultural actions (the campaign for advancement of the Belarusian language), using of expertise. A small variety of methods is partly caused by the marginal conditions of civil society existence which limits forms of direct lobbying, interaction and dialogue with the state structures. On the other hand, this is a reflection of the reactive character of civil activity, i.e. initiatives arise as reply to someone's actions or events, such as to protect or to stop decisions, already accepted. Proactive proposals find support and public resonance less often.

A considerable part of actions are appeals, demands and claims which do not receive any public reaction from the authorities or, in cases of a bureaucratic necessity, receive only a formal reaction which all the interaction comes to an end with.

Analytical work is used mainly "inside" campaigns and initiatives such as expertise, monitoring of the condition of a problem or of the legislation. At the same time, analytical support of the course of campaigns is practically absent as well as regular analytics of the general condition of the sphere of civil society and its separate components.

5) Efficiency of campaigns and initiatives differs, depending on concreteness and scale of purposes as well as in the form of interaction with the state structures.

Campaigns of solidarity with the victims aimed at concrete purposes, limited in time and focused on actions inside civil society, were the most effective and reached their objects. Campaigns and initiatives with wide procedural purposes (informing, supervision, popularization) planned to be implemented during long period of time and aimed at having influence on public consciousness and behavior, are also often estimated as effective ones. However, they have no more or less precise criteria of evaluation, and their efficiency is commensurate with the efforts, general possibilities and conditions, and is defined as performance or not performance of the planned actions. The absence of high-grade and regular researches of public consciousness concerning a wide range of questions does not allow us to trace precisely changes and to connect them with activity within the framework of campaigns and initiatives. Nevertheless, as for the topics of ecology and the building of the nuclear power station, the capital punishment, development of the Belarusian language, it is possible to speak about the effective promotion of interests.

Campaigns and initiatives directed on interaction with the state structures - requirements of cancellation or acceptance of these or those decisions, execution of legislative norms, protection of the rights, etc., - practically never achieve full performance of tasks in view. Success of such initiatives is connected with coincidence of interests represented by subjects of civil society and tasks and priorities of the state structures or separate officials. Such a coincidence sometimes happens in the politically non-engaged themes - protection of the historical-architectural heritage, advancement of the Belarusian language, ecological solutions.

As a whole, promotion and protection of interests remains mainly to be protest activity, which effects do not almost leave the limits of a circle called “democratic forces”. At the same time, the events have shown the ability of Belarus’ society to have a wide spontaneously organized civil activity and solidary actions. For development of processes of promotion of interests and protection of the rights of citizens is necessary: wider consolidation and interaction of various structures, broadcast and distribution of the positive experience of joint actions, expansion of informational work with the population of the country about initiatives and campaigns.

CHANGE OF CONDITIONS OF ACTIVITY OF SUBJECTS OF CIVIL SOCIETY

The general political condition in the country has been extremely negative background and factor that influence the activity of public associations, communities and other forms of display of civil activity. Primarily, the negative influence is reflected not in the deterioration of formal legal conditions, but on the law enabling practice. An additional factor is that the mass media form the negative image of civil society in the public opinion.

1) The legal conditions of the public associations (non-commercial associations) existence have not been essentially changed. In November, there were insignificant alterations in liability of infringement of the order of use of foreign free support («the upper plank » of responsibility was reduced). The list of public associations, societies and unions, which, while renting premises, could have used the basic rates with the lowering factor 0,1, was supplemented.

At the same time, in March, 2011 it was planned to discuss in the Parliament the draft law "On Noncommercial Organizations" which would regulate legal conditions of activity of structures of civil society. According to experts (a number of domestic and foreign NCOs - the International educational NGO “ACT”,  Enlightening Institution "Centre of Legal Transformation”, International center of the non-commercial right, etc.), the offered draft law does not eliminate the existing obstacles in the activity and development of public associations, but even complicates procedures and norms:

• The sphere of the use of the “declaring” principle of registration of NCOs is reduced (now it includes establishments and associations), the registration system becomes even more difficult;

• The problem of existence of non-registered organizations is not solved and, the main thing, the criminal responsibility for activity of some forms of NCOs which do not have the state registration, is not eliminated (article 193.1 of the Criminal code of Belarus);

• There are additional forms of the already bulky reporting and control requirements for NCOs;

• There are restrictive measures for separate categories of persons who are deprived of the right to create NCOs in the form of establishments;

• Still remain invariable positions of the draft law which define the location of NCOs.

After a formal discussion of the draft law, organized by the state structures, and an alternative discussion in the circle of independent public associations, which resulted in the collective appeal of the 112 non-commercial associations, the draft law has not been brought for discussion in the Parliament.

2) The law enabling practice testifies about a selective (individual) approach of the state structures to the process of registration and liquidation of non-commercial organizations. The international public association of social support of children and youth "Care", which chief executive was a presidential candidate, was liquidated because of an insignificant infringement (it was not situated at its legal address in the presence of the lease contract); at the same time, for the first time since 2001, in a judicial order, there has been registered Association of Life-Long Education and. Enlightenment. The headstrong approach of the state structures is aggravated by the absence of the official data on refusals in registration. According to human rights organizations, every month, one-two associations receive refusals in registration (about a half of them receive refusals regularly already for several years). Meanwhile, the official data on registration show that 4-15 public associations, funds, or establishments are registered monthly. Among the registered associations, the majority is sports and entertainment societies; there are practically no associations aimed at democratic transformations.

3) After the events of December, the 19^th the regular practice have become reprisals and not legal actions against civil society activists (in particular, human rights defenders and human rights organizations) as well as obstacles in rent and use of premises for activity of public associations. According to the human rights center "Viasna"and Belarusian Helsinki Committee, during the post-election reprisals, in total, there have been registered 165 searches in NGOs’ offices and apartments of members of oppositional and other public organizations. In the search warrants for the non-registered public organizations (for example, human rights center "Viasna", “Legal aid to the population”, «Students’ Council» (“Studencheskaja rada”), inspectors specified that the search was carried out in the office of a non-registered NGO; that can be considered as a disturbing signal (possibility of application of the article 193.1).

As a whole, the conditions of activity of structures of civil society have essentially worsened, primarily, due to the law enabling practice of a repressive character. This fact strengthens marginalization of public structures and turns their activity from the regime of development and expansion into the self-preservation and protection mode. The Belarusian authorities do not make any steps to improve the situation. Actions of structures of civil society, aimed at changing the conditions - monitorings of the situation, human rights defending actions in case of reprisals, campaign 193.1, the collective appeal concerning the draft law - are not sufficient to change the general negative tendencies. They have no necessary support among a wide range of interested subjects and are little known to the public of the country. It allows the power to ignore these actions. To change the existing tendencies, the strengthening of activity of public associations aimed at changing the conditions of their activity is necessary:

• Expansion of a circle of the subjects included in the general actions,

• Coordination and bringing the wide range of questions, which are being solved by subjects of very different types (public associations, unions and associations, religious communities, intellectual circles, business communities, etc.), to one common matter,

• Strengthening of information work with the wide public.

General conclusions:

1. Despite a certain positive advancement in the ability of consolidation of structures of civil society and of defense of a uniform position at the national level, the serious public and political challenges demanding coordinated actions, first of all, inside the country, currently remain without an adequate answer. The reactive position prevails, i.e. civil society reacts to the arising new circumstances, but does not create them neither in relation to the Belarusian power nor in the political opposition.

2. The conditions of activity of subjects of civil society do not promote their systematic development, making this sphere more and more marginal. Thus, these conditions create situations of a possible quality leap in development that demands the initiative and consolidation around the circle of the most powerful subjects.

3. The growth of the international influence of civil society in Belarus during the actual period is the result of the proactive actions of the previous period and is not stable. It will be possible to fix the existing positions only if there will be growing internal consolidation, bigger activity concerning the Eastern Partnership, definition of the coordinated position on behalf of civil society of Belarus in relations with international donors and official structures of the EU and the Council of Europe.