The historical genesis of the concept of natural
rights went through several phases of implementation: the development of
ideological and philosophical basis for political struggle to translate into a
new political order and to consolidate the legal order of the rules and
regulations. Each time in a somewhat different manner, but this common phasing
repeated for any national context at the European continent. Belarus is not an exception. And that means the current state of human
rights, as well as methods, mechanisms for their protection and realization of
rights is directly dependent on what stage of development is the entire sphere
at the moment. It also allows to determine the timeliness and adequacy of any
actions, programmes and policies in the sphere of human rights in Belarus.
Human rights and politics
The crisis of the Soviet ideology of the late
80's - early 90's led to the spread of liberal doctrines throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They pushed the dialectical-materialistic
perceptions about the just state system, the Soviet law and the rule of law. With
a varying awareness and success the post-communist countries started the
process of political transformation, quickly perceived as a transition to
democratic governance and market economy. Francis Fukuyama has time to declare
the final victory of liberalism and democracy and the «end of history». But
since 1996 in Belarus starts a new wave of democratization, to date, apparently spread
to the territory of the Russian Federation. In these countries, forces that stand in the positions of
liberalism and democracy have lost in the political opposition.
Belarus, at the national level begins revision of ideological grounds that
are based on Russian and Western Russian concepts, on forms of etatism and on
strengthening of the state, anti-Western and anti-liberal doctrines. However,
the real foundation of the state ideology is a special form of cynicism, meaning
that any ideology is good as long as it allows to hold power in their hands.
Nothing prevents the use of liberal rhetoric or claim movement towards liberal
ideology as it has not been realized in the modern political order. To a
greater realization of human rights in the legislation of Belarus, to assert the primacy of the international law, etc., anything
to maintain the stability of the existing political system. Now it is not so
important for us why this happened, however to acknowledge the fact that human
rights are crucial.
Human rights and the law
Despite the fact that since 1990 all lawyers in
Belarus teach about how to distinguish a right and the law, about inalienable
human rights, the actual practice of law-enforcement agencies is much closer to
the understanding of the law in a Marx-way as the «will of the dominant class».
The legal system in the country is such that even as enshrined in the
Constitution, the laws of the Republic of Belarus, international treaties on human rights can not be realized.
Implementation of legislative regulations depends on the definition of the
procedures of how to realize their right. You can, for example, to declare the
freedom of assembly and association, but then you can set such a way of
implementation, which makes senseless the freedom itself. Belarusian law now
says that you can meet where you want and how you want, but only when the State
specifically allows you to meet and it will determine the location and form of
such a meeting for you.
Today, the law and the legislation in Belarus, the practice of law, the work of the judiciary and of the law
enforcement is a natural addition, necessary part of the modern political
regime in Belarus. And there is no place for human rights, the provision would
render impossible the existence of such a political order. For some reason,
very often the problem is looked at upside down when one sees an opportunity to
change the political system to improve and reform legislation. This is not correct.
The electoral law does not work in Belarus, not because the Electoral Code is very bad, but because both the
authorities and those who implement the law, are not interested in that it
actually worked. One may as much as wants try to improve and bring the law in
line with the international standards, however a mismatch with the application
procedures will make it impossible to implement. Due to the fact that it should
not be implemented in the first place. If authoritarian and totalitarian
political systems exclude rotation of elites through elections, then there are
no elections in this system and they are not possible at all (even if they can be
actively simulated).
Protecting human rights
In the focus of attention of the Belarusian
human rights defenders are the violations of civil and political rights,
although in total violation of human rights, they do not make up the largest part.
Nevertheless the lack of these rights puts into question the implementation and
all the rest. Attempts to force the state to enforce the other rights are related
to the implementation of the political rights of citizens. Thus, the protection
of social and economic rights (such as the right to work, decent pay for it,
etc.) is unthinkable without the proper freedom for trade unions and social
non-governmental organizations. The radicality of the situation lies in the
fact that all of the independent state bodies, in whatever sphere they may develop
their activity involves parallel «remedy» of the subject, with the protection
of their own rights. I.e. any independent activity in Belarus is becoming to a greater or lesser extent a problem of human
rights.
The existence of human rights in Belarus recalls the famous ancient Greek aporia: if a human rights
defender this is the one who protects the rights of others, whether he or she
protects her/his own rights? Or else, who will defend the rights of human
rights? This paradox creates a lack of other than political, human rights
protection mechanisms. In order to protect someone's right you first need to
obtain guarantees of their rights. For this reason, the human rights
organizations’ task is to exercise monitoring (registration of facts) of violations
of human rights and to provide education in the field of human rights regarding
what actions should be taken to protect and to restore the rights. In Belarus, citizens, civil society are not yet through towards the end of the
last phase of political struggle for their rights. In such situation it is
problematic even to speak of the existence of its own citizens and civil
society, because it already presupposes the existence and actual realization of
well defined human rights. Our situation is an example of the situation that human
rights are not available to us as a gift of the European civilization, without prior
political struggle for them. To become citizens and to form civil society, to
find and assign our own right is the inevitable path of the modern Belarusian
nation.
