Political History
Belarus
gained independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991. Unlike in other former Soviet republics, nationhood
and nationalism have not figured prominently in
the country’s political life. Since his inauguration in 1994, the first democratically elected
president in country’s history, Alyaksandr Lukashenka,
restored the Soviet republican flag and emblem instead
of the historical symbols of independence and has pursued
reintegration with Russia through the signing of two unification
decrees in 1997 and 1998, and the December 1999 treaty
to create a political and economic confederation. Following his June 1998 expulsion of foreign diplomats from their homes in
Minsk, US and
Western governments withdrew their staff from Belarus.
Scholars explain this anomaly by historical developments
which have worked against the development of a strong
national consciousness in this country.
[1]
At the same time, the Belarussian leader has
strongly opposed democratic and market reforms, as well
as the eastward expansion of NATO.
Belarus is the only country in the Central-East
Europe which has been refused entry into the Council of
Europe.
[2]
Suspending the post-Soviet Constitution following
an internationally criticized referendum of 27 November
1996, Lukashenka adopted a new constitution which gave
him sweeping powers and in effect established the country
as a system sliding toward a lawless personal dictatorship.
[3]
The
Belarussian population is 78 percent Belarussian, 13 percent
Russian, 4.1 percent Polish, 2.9 percent Ukrainian, and
1.1 percent Jewish.
[4]
Eighty percent of the population identify themselves
as Eastern Orthodox, and the remaining 20 percent practice
Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Protestantism or
Islam. The
various ethnic groups have coexisted peacefully except
for overt anti-Semitism during the Brezhnev period.
[5]
The 1986 Chernobyl Explosion
Belarus
is the country most affected by the 26 April 1986 explosion
of Nuclear Reactor Number Four in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
Because of the northwestward wind direction at
the time of the disaster, an estimated 70 percent of the
radioactive smoke and fallout settled along the border
with Belarus. The
city of Gomel and the surrounding areas received most
of the invisible contamination. Among the two million people affected by the
contamination,
[6]
pregnant women and children suffered
the most from severe radiation-related health problems.
[7]
Freedom of Expression and
Human Rights
Media, Professional and Academic
Freedom
The
Lukashenka government has attempted to silence opposition
by imposing limits on the independent media, independent
professionals including lawyers and academics, opposition
political parties and nongovernmental organizations. In
March 1998, Lukashenka issued a directive “On Enhancing
Counter-Propaganda Activities Towards Opposition Press,"
forbidding state officials from making any documents available
to independent media and banning government advertising
in all but state-run outlets.
Several independent media outlets have been harassed,
the newspaper Svaboda (Freedom) has been shut down, and
the staged trial of ORT (Russian television) staff in
Minsk have been prosecuted and given the choice between
silence or a two-year prison term.
[8]
Academic freedom has been attached by imposing
warnings, expulsion, demotion or dismissal on faculty
and students who join opposition organizations and otherwise
manifest their criticism. The state education system has been subordinated
to the president by his power to directly appoint and
dismiss university deans and rectors.
[9]
Civil Society and Women’s
NGOs
The
women’s movement began emerging after Belarus became independent.
[10]
As women were the social group most affected
by postcommunist economic restructuring, changes in the
welfare system and ecological effects of the Chernobyl
disaster, the first groups were self-help organizations
that focused their activities around “survival strategies.”
According to Elena Gapova, the first independent women’s
group, The Women’s League, was established in 1990 in
the capital of Minsk.
[11]
Currently, there are several dozen women’s
groups, working on issues related to employment rights,
participation in decision-making in politics, sharing
of housework, and violence against women.
[12]
NGOs have
operated under extremely difficult conditions. In January 1999 Lukashenka promulgated a decree
requiring the registration of trade unions and political
parties before 1 July 1999.
Belarussian human rights organizations (including
women’s groups), trade unions and other organizations
claim that the established procedures and regulations
for re-registration are actually aimed at liquidating
any organizations independent of the regime.
[13]
Economy
The Belarussian economy has been in a crisis
and production has dropped dramatically since independence. In 1990-1995, industrial output decreased by
41 percent, agricultural production dropped by 26 percent,
retail trade went down by 61 percent and employment fell
by 14 percent.
[14]
The fall 1998 financial crisis in Russia also
had a serious impact on Belarus.
[15]
In preparing the following
report, IWRAW used materials and feedback from professor
Elena Gapova based in Minsk, Belarus.
Caryn M. Wilde, student at Humphrey Institute of
Public Affairs in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who had worked
with women’s groups in Belarus for the past several years
provided comments on the draft of this report.
STATUS OF WOMEN IN BELARUS
UNDER
SPECIFIC CEDAW ARTICLES:
CONVENTION ARTICLE 3: BASIC
RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS
Women in Prisons
Belarus
has one of the highest proportions of convicts in the
world. The crime rate for women has grown faster than
the crime rate for men: while in general, crime rose 0.9
percent in 1997, the female crime rate increased by 4.2
percent. Studies
[16]
of the female prison population in
Belarus indicate that more than half (59.4 percent) of
women convicted for violent crimes had been victims of
domestic violence and only eleven percent have never been
affected by domestic violence. In 81.5 percent of these cases, women’s husbands
or lovers were the perpetrators.
Studies suggest that women commit murder and other
serious crime in response to long-lasting abuse. Researcher
Irina Dunaeva attributes the situation in part to the
cultural and traditional stereotypes that tolerate violence
as means of regulating gender relations.
[17]
It is unknown if and what types of
rehabilitation programs are available to female inmates,
especially those with a history of victimization.
Women
prisoners also report abuse from law enforcement officers,
including sexual attacks.
Almost seven percent of female inmates — more than
the non-inmate population — report sexual abuse.
[18]
CONVENTION ARTICLE 5: SEX
ROLES AND STEREOTYPING
According
to Gapova, as social and political transformation opened
a discussion of gender roles and family values that has
important implications for women. Some of the models which are being revived
interpret the “Slavic tradition” as the only alternative
to Western technological and politicized civilization.
Women have often been portrayed in Belarus by community
leaders and the media supportive of the Church as the
“savior” of mankind and disseminator of Christian values
and humanistic ideas.
These ideas have been accompanied by the call to
“bring women back to families.”
[19]
In response to declining fertility rates, the
Soviet tradition of giving awards to women with five or
more children has been revived.
[20]
At the same time, attempts to retrain unemployed
women have been limited to traditional women’s occupations,
such as needlework and sometimes accounting.
According to Gapova, these programs rested on the
stereotypical view that women, and not men, would want
to acquire skills that would allow them to spend more
time with their family.
CONVENTION ARTICLE 6: PROSTITUTION
AND TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN
Belarus,
like other countries of the region, has seen an increase
in trafficking of women to work as prostitutes abroad.
The most common destinations are Western European
countries, as well as other Eastern European countries
(the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria) where the living
standards are higher than in Belarus. In the Belarussian printed media, it is common to find advertisements
offering work abroad as models, dancers, or au pair. Many of the advertisers
are umbrellas for traffickers.
Some women who willingly travel abroad for prostitution
also find themselves in utterly humiliating situations
since, as illegal immigrants, they are forced to work
in brothels and find themselves at the bottom of the hierarchy
and under complete control by criminal groups.
[21]
There exist no official or unofficial statistics
on trafficking from Belarus as it is not easy to obtain
reliable data. Trafficked
women are reluctant to come forward.
As the trafficking operates in several countries
at the same time and women are typically offered “the
job” while already abroad, it is difficult to find incriminating
evidence in the territory of Belarus.
Therefore, researchers
Snezhana Rogach and Serge Shimukovitch recommend that
joint action by all countries involved
(exporting, importing and transit countries) is
necessary. The
government planned to set up a special department to deal
with the problem of trafficking
of women at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in
1998. It is unknown
if such an agency has been established.
[22]
CONVENTION ARTICLES 7 AND
8: POLITICAL AND PUBLIC LIFE
Despite
women’s higher educational and professional achievement
(women constitute 58.4 percent of the workers with higher
education and 65.8 percent of those with specialized secondary
education
[23]
), they do not play significant roles
in decision-making in the political and public sphere.
Although 20-50 percent of the members of political
parties are women, their representation in party leadership
is disproportionately low, and stands at 2-15 percent.
[24]
The cabinet includes only eight percent women
and the legislature five percent.
[25]
CONVENTION ARTICLE 11: EMPLOYMENT
By
the end of the Soviet period, women constituted 50 percent
of the labor force. With
the transition to the market economy (short-lived as it
was), they have become the chief victims and the first
to be laid off. By
1996, over 60 percent of the unemployed were women.
[26]
Despite their higher educational status, according
to recent studies, the transitional period has been characterized
by the worsening of women’s labor situation and they typically
work in occupations below their educational level.
Researchers blame the re-establishment of the patriarchal
models for this situation. Patriarchal stereotypes limit the sphere of
women’s activity to the family, and to sectors such as
education and health care which receive lower funding
from the state and typically enjoy a lower status and
salaries. For
instance, women are employed by law enforcement agencies,
but they are prohibited from entering the educational
establishments of the Ministry of Interior.
[27]
The
February 1999 official data provided by the Ministry of
Statistics and Analysis indicates that women constituted
66.6 percent of the unemployed (70,600 out of 105,900).
At the same time, while women’s employment in the
non-production sector (health care, social support, education,
housing and communal services) increased by one-half,
their employment in the production sectors of the economy
decreased from 36.1 percent in 1990 to 31.1 percent in
1996. The number
of women in science and science-related services decreased
twofold, while the number of men in these areas has remained
the same. Moreover, women have increasingly become predominant
in jobs with unsatisfactory working conditions.
[28]
Women
have been particularly affected by
“intellectual unemployment,” as their share of
unemployed has been high especially in the category of
people with higher and secondary technical education.
[29]
The market encourages well-educated women to
reenter employment in different capacities which involves
a significant decrease in their social and professional
status. For instance, in 1997, women with post-secondary education have
participated in retraining in the following categories:
44.1 percent as bookkeepers, 34 percent as secretaries;
and 20.4 percent as sewing machine operators.
Only 1.5 percent of the retrainees were learning
other skills.
[30]
According to sociological studies of 1997,
two-thirds of women who enter the retraining programs
used to be engineers, technical workers, scientists and
professionals in the arts.
Private Enrepreneurship
Although
women legally can become entrepreneurs on an equal basis
with men in Belarus, researcher Galina Sokolova claims
that this opportunity is a more theoretical than practical
reality for most women.
[31]
According to her study, only one-third of respondents
(both men and women) indicated that they had savings and
resources to invest, and 9.1 percent of men as opposed
to 2.7 percent of women actually started commercial activity.
The study indicates that the number of women willing
to start their businesses is ten times higher than the
number of those who have actually done it. According to Sokolova, women face both financial
and social-psychological obstacles.
Privatization provided few opportunities for women
because so few were in the top managerial posts that receive
compensation and entrepreneurial opportunity.
[32]
Labor Law
Belarussian
labor legislation as it relates to women is based on the
concept of a woman and her needs as a mother.
The protectionist approach grants privileges to
women during pregnancy and maternity; women with three
or more children or with a handicapped child, single mothers
with two children or more are given one paid day off per
month. The law
also establishes criminal liability for refusal to employ
a pregnant woman.
[33]
Belarussian researcher Irina Kuchvalskaya
has argued that this protectionist approach contributes
to the deterioration of women’s situation in the labor
market, as women’s competitiveness is dropping, and salary
levels and working conditions are worsening. In the market economy, owners of private businesses
are unwilling to hire women to whom they have to grant
numerous privileges and additional days off.
[34]
According to Kuchvalskaya, the government should
pursue a policy that would make the creation of jobs for
women profitable and beneficial to employers which means
legislation that would boost women’s employment and encourage
the involvement of both parents in child care.
[35]
She specifically advocates the following mechanisms:
·
tax benefits
for enterprises
with employees with a limited competitiveness
·
loans on favorable
conditions for the establishment of women’s businesses
·
profitable
contract by the
state with employers who will make a commitment to hire
women who are likely to be disadvantaged in the labor
market (that is, women of pre-retirement age, pregnant,
handicapped, single women and mothers with many children,
women who have been unemployed for an extended period
of time, women released from prison)
CONVENTION ARTICLE 12: HEALTH
CARE AND FAMILY PLANNING
Effects of the 1986 Chernobyl
Disaster
The
maternal mortality rate in Belarus is 37 deaths per 100,000
live births.
[36]
Although government officials minimize
the effects of the Chernobyl explosion, local scientists
consistently claim that low doses of radiation received
by the population on a regular basis have resulted in
severe health problems which have continued 13 years after
the explosion. The
numbers speak for themselves:
75 percent of
women in Belarus need Cesarean section births as
they are too weak to tolerate a normal delivery. Only ten percent of mothers have non-radioactive milk.
[37]
Children have also been affected: about ten percent of the children in the Gomel
area have leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors or thyroid
cancer; and most of the others suffer from a variety of
effects of radiation, from brittle and slow-growing
bones to gum disease and weakened immune systems.
About 900 children die every year of thyroid cancer.
Many children who live in remote villages have
been exposed to contaminated food and water since their
birth and have not even been diagnosed.
Despite huge health care needs, the government
has been consistently slashing funds for Chernobyl-related
health services.
[38]
Abortion
For
decades abortion has been available on demand and has
been the most frequently used means of contraception.
Although abortion is still legal, according to
professor Gapova, partly as a response to the falling
fertility rates, it increasingly has been under attack
from the Russian Orthodox church.
Since 1997 articles written by Russian Orthodox
priests opposing abortion, calling it murder and women
who decide to use it murderers, started appearing in the
press. The Church
has largely defined the issue.
Gapova and other women’s activists have written
on the topic, but the church has organized seminars on
the topic — such as one in October entitled “Abortion
as moral and spiritual issue of contemporary life.
According to Gapova, this campaign already has
had a detrimental effect on women’s access to abortion
as some women who requested abortion have been turned
away in cases when they do not already have children or
are under 38.
[39]
Family Planning
Recent
statistics show that only 23 percent of both men and women
use contraception.
[40]
According to Gapova, one of the reasons is
that contraceptives are either very expensive or of very
poor quality.
[41]
In addition, abortion is still widely used.
It is estimated that about 44.5 percent (1997)
of all pregnancies end in
abortion. At
the same time, according to Gapova, the Church has launched
a anti-sex education campaign.
CONVENTION ARTICLE 15: EQUALITY
BEFORE THE LAW
The
Constitution of Belarus incorporates the principles of
international law and affirms the right to equal protection
of rights without any discrimination.
This includes the totality of rights of women.
Article 35 contains provisions on equality of men and
women in the family and grants women equal opportunity
in receiving education and professional training, as well
as in socio-political, cultural and other spheres, including
equal pay for equal work. Specifically, Article 32, section II of the
Constitution defines gender quality in the following way:
“Women are granted opportunities equal with men in education
and professional training, in work and promotion in the
service (job), in sociopolitical, cultural and other spheres
of activity, as well as provision of conditions for protection
of their work and health care.”
Professor Irina Kuchvalskaya has argued that the
formulation is discriminatory in itself as it regards
a man as a model enjoying rights, with women having to
“catch up,” instead of affirming the equality of men and
women as an overarching principle.
[42]
Criminal Law
The
criminal law contains provisions which stipulate certain
benefits and privileges for women only: forbidding application
of the death penalty and life imprisonment to women, and
providing for leniency in sentencing to prison. However, imprisoned
women are subject to worse conditions than men. For example,
in January 1999, correctional institutions for men were
overcrowded by an average of 50 percent, while the only
women’s prison in Belarus with the capacity of 1,350 persons,
held 3,150 convicts (233 percent).
[43]
ACTIONS BY OTHER UN HUMAN
RIGHTS MECHANISMS
PERTAINING TO WOMEN’S HUMAN
RIGHTS
Concluding Observations of
the Human Rights Committee: Belarus (6 November 1997). The CRC Committee considered Belarus’ fourth
periodic report on 30 October 1997.
No recommendations concerning
women were issued by this Committee.
Concluding Observations of
the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination:
Belarus (19 March 1997). The CERD Committee considered
Belarus’ fourteenth periodic
report on 6 and 7 March 1997.
No recommendations concerning
women were issued by this Committee.
International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Concluding Observations of the Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights: Belarus (6 December 1996).
The CESCR Committee considered Belarus’
third periodic report on 21 and 22 November 1996.
Principal Subjects of Concern:
·
The rise in
unemployment, particularly in relation to its disproportionate
impact on women. It is also concerned at the discrimination
against women in appointment to jobs.
Suggestions and Recommendations:
·
Adopt legislation
and practical steps to combat discrimination against women
in employment.
Concluding Observations of
the Committee on the Rights of the Chile: Belarus.
The CRC Committee considered Belarus’ initial report on
25 and 26 January 1994.
Suggestions and Recommendations:
·
Consider becoming
a party to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children
and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption of
1993 as well as the 1980 Convention on the Civil Aspects
of International Child Abduction. Adopt the Family and
Marriage Law that takes account of the need to undertake
appropriate measures to address the serious problems of
family breakdown in Belarus.
·
Place stronger
emphasis on primary health care activities which would
include the development of educational programs to cover
such matters as family education, family planning, sex
education and the benefits of breast feeding.
[1]
Kathleen J. Mihalisko, “Belarus: Retreat
to Authoritarianism,” In Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott,
eds. Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions
in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997), 243.
[6]
Alice Lagnado, “The Children of Belarus
are Paying Heavy Price,” The
Times (London), 10 July 1999, Nexis, 19 August 1999.
[7]
Darius Sanai , “Belarus: the Angel of Chernobyl,”
The Independent
(London) , 5 December 1998, 12.
[8]
Committee to Protect Journalists, 1998 Country Report:Belarus, available
at: http://www.cpj.org,
accessed 7 September 1999.
[9]
Human Rights Watch, Republic of Belarus: Violations of Academic Freedom, vol. 11 No. 7 (D) (July 1999), available at
http://www.hrw.org, accessed 8 September 1999.
[10]
United Nations Development Programme,
Belarussian Women as Seen Through Era (UNDP, 1997), available at www.un.minsk.by/wid/97,
accessed 20 November 1999.
[11]
Elena Gapova, “Women’s Movement: From Socialism...
Whereto,? Belarus
in the World: Politics-Economics-Security
n. 3, vol. 3
(1998): 43.
[12]
United Nations Development Programme,
Belarussian Women as Seen Through Era (UNDP, 1997), available at www.un.minsk.by/wid/97,
accessed 20 November 1999.
[13]
International League for Human Rights,
Save Belarussian NGOs, available at: <http://www.ilhr.org>,
accessed 3 September 1999.
[14]
“Gender Issues in the Belarussian Economy,”
on-line, available at www.un.minsk.by/97/rz-1.html,
accessed 5 August 1999.
[15]
David R. Marples, The Democratic Crisis in Belarus, (unpublished article 1999).
[16]
Irina Dunaeva, “Gender Features of Criminality
and Victimization in Belarus,” Belarus
in the World: Politics-Economics-Security
n. 3, vol. 3
(1998): 53.
[19]
Elena Gapova, “Women’s Movement: From Socialism...
Whereto,? Belarus
in the World: Politics-Economics-Security
n. 3, vol. 3
(1998): 44.
[20]
Irina Kuchvalskaya, Belarus in the World: Politics-Economics-Security n. 3, vol. 3 (1998): 50.
[21]
Snezhana Rogach, Serge Shimukovitch, Belarus in the World: Politics-Economics-Security
n. 3, vol. 3
(1998): 57.
[23]
United Nations Development Programme,
Belarussian Women as Seen Through Era (UNDP, 1997), available at www.un.minsk.by/wid/97,
accessed 20 November 1999.
[25]
Naomi Neft and Ann D. Levine, Where Women Stand: An International Report
on the Status of Women in 140 Countries (1997-1998)
(New York: Random House, 1997), 485.
[26]
David R. Marples, The Democratic Crisis in Belarus, (unpublished article 1999).
[27]
Irina Kuchvalskaya, “Female Equality in
the Legislation of the Republic of Belarus,” Belarus in the World: Politics-Economics-Security n. 3, vol. 3 (1998): 51.
[28]
Galina Sokolova, “The Structure of Employment
and Unemployment from the Gender View Point, Belarus in the World: Politics-Economics-Security n. 3, vol. 3 (1998): 46-47.
[32]
Elena Gapova, “Women’s Movement: From Socialism...
Whereto,? Belarus
in the World: Politics-Economics-Security
n. 3, vol. 3
(1998): 43.
[33]
Irina Kuchvalskaya, “Female Equality in
the Legislation of the Republic of Belarus,” Belarus in the World: Politics-Economics-Security n. 3, vol. 3 (1998): 50-51.
[36]
Naomi Neft and Ann D. Levine, 506.
[37]
Alice Lagnado, “The Children of Belarus
are Paying Heavy Price,” The
Times (London), 10 July 1999, Nexis, 19 August 1999.
[38]
Darius Sanai , “Belarus: the Angel of Chernobyl,”
The Independent
(London) , 5 December 1998,\. 12.
[39]
E-mail correspondence between Laura Katzive
of Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York
with Elena Gapova, 12 October 1997.
[40]
Naomi Neft and Ann D. Levine, 502.
[41]
E-mail correspondence from Elena Gapova
to Laura Katzive of the Center for Reproductive Law
and Policy in New York, 12 October 1997.
[42]
Irina Kuchvalskaya, 49.
