Statement of the working group Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus

We, the representatives of the Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus, express our deep concern over the conduction of National conference on the results of research of civil society index in Belarus. The conference is planned for November 14 and is organised in the frames of the project under the auspices of the OSCE, in cooperation with the international alliance CIVICUS. The reason for our concern is the goal to create thematic and national platforms of civil society in Belarus, declared by the organizers of the conference.

Assembly of NGOs of Belarus has always advocated for the fact that non-governmental organizations united for defending their interests and rights, exchanging information and establishing partnerships. We also believe that the constructive interaction between civil society actors, government and business institutions embodies the idea of shared responsibility for development and progress in the society.

However, the arrangement of such a constructive dialogue and cooperation is possible only under the condition that this process is natural and does not violate the principles on which the civil society is based. In this case, creation of favorable conditions for the development of civil society, as well as an open, transparent and inclusive process of constructing the communication mechanisms between NGOs and government bodies should be provided.

At the moment, we’d like to note with regret that:

• Conditions for the operation and development of public organizations in Belarus are unfavorable. This fact is confirmed by the presence of criminal liability for the activities of unregistered organizations in Belarusian Criminal Code (Art. 193.1), a complex procedure of obtaining state registration (including problems with obtaining a legal address and ungrounded denials of registration of NGOs), limited opportunities to receive funding, etc. We also want to draw attention to the fact that a Law on noncommercial organizations is being prepared, which is done without the participation of civil society.
• The authorities have not yet demonstrated real desire and motivation to engage into dialogue with the civil society organizations in all their diversity.
• The process of creation a “National platform of civil society” in the country, which is conducted under the direction of Mr. Zagoumenov, occurs too quickly, it’s poorly thought-out and voluntaristic. All this raises serious doubts about the credibility of the declared goals of the process.

Moreover, we want to point out that over last years quite a lot of dialogue platforms and associations of non-governmental organizations have been working in Belarus, and they have witnessed their effectiveness. Those platforms and associations (Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus, the Human Rights Organizations Forum, the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, etc.) were coming out with proposals for constructive cooperation with the authorities, but their appeals have remained unanswered.

Therefore, the Assembly of NGOs of Belarus declares that:

• Assembly of NGOs is willing to continue its work on improving communication and developing dialogue within the civil sector, as well as between civil society and the authorities. But such dialogue is possible only if based on the principles of respect, partnership, civil participation, independence, responsibility, equal opportunities for all non-governmental organizations and initiatives in relations with the authorities.
• Assembly of NGOs of Belarus doesn’t see the initiative to establish a “National Platform of Civil Society” in the frames of the project on research of civil society index in Belarus as democratic and transparent yet.
• Assembly of NGOs of Belarus calls for arranging broad and transparent consultations among the interested government bodies and NGOs, not only concerning goals, principles and mechanisms of cooperation between the State and NGOs, but also regarding the issue HOW such mechanisms should be developed. Assembly of NGOs believes that the conference scheduled on November, 14 should concentrate on the results of the mentioned above research as well as on possible in the future arranging of dialog between civil society and the authorities.
• Assembly of NGOs welcomes the authorities’ intention to launch a fruitful cooperation and dialogue with civil society, but this intention must be backed by concrete steps. We see these steps as follows: a) abolition of Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code, b) undertaking an open public debate on elaboration of the draft Law on non-profit organizations, with the full involvement of civil society in the process.