"Severe reprisals against women human rights defenders" What did CEDAW say in its recommendations to Belarus?

The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women has issued concluding observations on the ninth periodic report of Belarus. Recall that the Committee considered the ninth periodic report of Belarus (CEDAW/C/BLR/9) at its 2124th and 2125th meetings (see CEDAW/C/SR.2124 and CEDAW/C/SR.2125), on 6 February 2025.

Viasna reports on the committee's main areas of concern and its recommendations.

Visibility of the Convention, the Optional Protocol and the Committee’s general recommendations

The Committee notes with concern that, to date, the Convention has not been directly invoked, applied or referred to in court proceedings, nor are there data on women having claimed their rights to non-discrimination and equality by invoking provisions of the Convention or relevant national legislation, which indicates a lack of awareness among the judiciary, lawyers and women themselves about women’s rights under the Convention and the procedures under the Optional Protocol thereto.

The Committee recommends that the State party ensure the full translation of the Convention into all national languages and its integration into national law and promote its active application in judicial proceedings. Judges and lawyers should systematically reference the Convention in relevant cases, and the State party should take concrete steps to educate the public, legal professionals, and women about its international commitments to women’s rights. It also recommends the systematic collection and publication of disaggregated statistical data on court decisions related to discrimination against women, categorized by type and outcome, and requests that the State party include detailed information on such cases during follow-up and its next periodic report.

Legislative framework

The Committee remains concerned that the State party has not institutionalized a systematic gender analysis of its legal framework to ensure full compliance with the Convention. While noting that a legislative review was conducted between 2017 and 2019, the Committee is concerned that the review did not explicitly aim to identify and amend or repeal discriminatory laws, such as legal provisions criminalizing HIV transmission. It also notes with concern that the gender expertise toolkit developed by the State party is limited to economic regulations rather than applying a cross-sectoral approach in all areas of the law.

The Committee recommends that the State party institutionalize a mandatory gender analysis to ensure that draft legislation is systematically reviewed for its impact on women’s rights and gender equality before adoption. It also recommends that the State party adopt a comprehensive gender equality law that provides a cross-sectoral framework for promoting gender equality and repeal discriminatory provisions, such as those criminalizing HIV transmission. The Committee recommends that the State party expand its gender expertise toolkit to apply across all areas and allocate adequate human, technical and financial resources for its implementation. It further recommends that the State party establish a mechanism to monitor and evaluate progress in gender-impact assessments.

Definition of discrimination

The Committee is concerned about the absence of a definition of discrimination against women in the State party’s legislation, covering both direct and indirect discrimination in the public and private spheres, as well as intersecting forms of discrimination.

The Committee recommends that the State party adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that specifically prohibits all forms of discrimination against women and girls, including direct and indirect discrimination in the public and private spheres, as well as intersecting forms of discrimination.

Access to justice

The Committee remains deeply concerned about:

• The widespread and systematic practice of arbitrary arrests and detention, particularly targeting individuals for their real or perceived opposition to the government, with heightened violence against women human rights defenders, political activists, and opposition figures who challenge patriarchal gender norms, many of whom are reported to have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment and gender-based violence;
• The increasing use of trials in absentia and the arbitrary deprivation of citizenship and legal documents as a form of political retaliation, particularly against women perceived as dissenters, including human rights defenders, politicians and activists in exile, denying them access to justice and due process;
• The use of counter-extremism and anti-terrorism laws to criminalize legitimate human rights work and civic activism, disproportionately affecting organizations advocating for women's rights and gender equality, thereby further entrenching barriers to justice for women facing gender-based discrimination and violence;
• The lack of judicial independence and systemic barriers to fair trials, including the harassment, prosecution, arbitrary detention, and revoking of lawyers’ licences for those working on human rights cases, the subordination of the professional bar association to the Ministry of Justice, and the absence of gender-sensitive legal training, which result in gender-biased rulings and severely limit women’s access to independent legal representation, particularly for women human rights defenders and political activists;
• The lack of accountability for human rights violations, as evidenced by the lack of effective investigation and prosecution of those responsible, the suppression of appeals mechanisms, the State party’s unwillingness to engage in legal and institutional reforms, and its withdrawal from the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2023.

The Committee urges Belarus to:

• Review and reassess all charges brought against women unlawfully or arbitrarily detained for exercising their freedoms of expression, association and assembly, or for carrying out their legitimate functions, and cease and reverse any administrative or criminal proceedings initiated for the exercise of these rights;
• Guarantee fair trial rights for all individuals, including those in exile, by discontinuing the practice of trials in absentia, restoring citizenship and legal documentation to all women affected by politically motivated charges, ensuring due notification of charges against them, access to independent legal counsel of their choice, participation in legal proceedings, and the right to appeal before an independent and impartial tribunal, free from political interference, in line with the State Party’s international human rights obligations;
• Cease the use of counter-extremism and anti-terrorism laws against individuals exercising their legitimate human rights, such as freedom of expression, association, and assembly or those affiliated with CSOs, particularly those advocating for gender equality and women’s rights;
• Strengthen judicial independence by establishing an independent and impartial accreditation process for lawyers to ensure their professionalism and autonomy, ending the harassment and prosecution of legal professionals, and training judges, prosecutors, and legal professionals on gender-sensitive investigation and interrogation methods, ensuring fair trial guarantees, particularly for women human rights defenders and political activists;
• Ensure accountability for human rights violations by promptly, impartially, and effectively investigating, prosecuting and punishing those responsible, establishing independent oversight mechanisms, ensuring remedies for victims, and reinstating full, meaningful cooperating with international human rights mechanisms, including the re-ratification of the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.

National human rights institutions

The Committee regrets that the State party has decided not to establish an independent NHRI, which would ensure compliance with international human rights obligations, enhance coordination, offer impartial expertise and facilitate engagement with civil society, including women’s organizations, despite having studied its feasibility.

The Committee recommends that the State party reconsider establishing an independent NHRI within a clear time frame, in accordance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles, see General Assembly Resolution A/RES/48/134 (1993)) with a broad mandate to protect the human rights of women and to promote women’s rights and gender equality, and to meaningfully involve independent, pluralistic CSOs and seek technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the process.

Civil society, including women human rights defenders

The Committee remains gravely concerned about:

• The shrinking civic space in the State party and its active role in suppressing human rights advocacy, with reports of severe reprisals against women human rights defenders, political activists, and journalists, including unlawful and arbitrary detention, harassment, censorship, heightened surveillance, forced exile, gender-based violence, and threats, such as the deprivation of parental rights, amounting to crimes against humanity;
• The lack of accountability for these acts, perpetuating a culture of impunity and fear, which deters freedom of speech and the press;
• The dissolution of NGOs and restrictive requirements for the registration of NGOs, and the criminalization of unregistered or dissolved organizations, under vague charges of extremist activities, which disproportionally target CSOs advocating for women’s rights that challenge patriarchal gender norms;
• Law No. 337-Z and Presidential Decree No. 37 authorizing the use of force by security personnel against civilians, including women, and granting immunity from liability for the harm caused, and lack of measures to ensure public security and order that comply with international human rights standards.

The Committee urges the State party to:

• Ensure that women human rights defenders, women political activists, CSO representatives, and journalists, whether in the State party or in exile, can freely express their opinion and pursue their legitimate human rights advocacy, free from harassment, censorship, gender-based threats, politically motivated prosecutions, and arbitrary detention, and repeal legislation that unduly restricts their activities;
• Promptly initiate independent, impartial, effective and transparent investigations into all allegations of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, harassment, censorship, and gender-based violence against women human rights defenders, political activists, and journalists; prosecute and adequately punish perpetrators, and provide victims with effective protection and redress;
• Review and amend excessive restrictions on pluralistic CSOs, including Articles 361-1 and 361-4 of the Criminal Code and laws governing the registration and operation of CSOs, and eliminate all undue barriers to the work of civil society organizations, particularly those promoting women’s human rights and gender equality;
• Repeal provisions in Law No. 337-Z and Presidential Decree No. 37 that allow the indiscriminate use of force against women, children, including women and girls with disabilities, and ensure that all measures to protect public security and public order are proportionate and comply with international human rights standards.

Women in detention

The Committee remains gravely concerned about:

• The reported inhumane conditions of detention for women, including overcrowding, poor hygiene, inadequate medical care, and arbitrary punitive measures such as solitary confinement, public humiliation, and instigation of fights among detainees, and the State party’s failure to conduct meaningful investigations;
• The restricted access of women detainees to effective and affordable legal assistance, including denial of confidential meetings with lawyers, coercion to record false confessions under duress, and of incommunicado detention of women without access to legal counsel;
• Persistent reports of gender-based violence, including sexual violence and ill-treatment, against women in detention, with impunity;
• The absence of independent and confidential complaint mechanisms;
• The mandatory nature of forced labour as a criminal punishment, without regulation or guarantees of fair remuneration or compliance with decent work standards;
• The State party’s failure to fully implement the recommendations of ILO supervisory bodies and the International Labour Conference Resolution on Belarus (June 2023), including insufficient access for ILO mission to detention facilities;
• The continued imprisonment of women arrested in relation to human rights cases, such as their exercise of freedom of expression, association, and assembly or those affiliated with CSOs, as well as those whose incarceration poses an immediate threat to their health or life, without consideration for release on humanitarian grounds.

The Committee urges the State party to:

• Bring conditions of detention for women in line with international standards, including the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules), and conduct effective, prompt and transparent investigations into all reported deaths of women in custody since May 2020;
• Ensure that detained women have effective, affordable and, if necessary, free access to legal assistance, including private communication with counsel;
• Abolish strip searches conducted by guards of the opposite sex and prohibit all forms of degrading treatment, including invasive body searches and other practices that constitute gender-based humiliation;
• Establish a confidential and effective mechanism for receiving complaints of sexual violence, ensure law enforcement personnel are trained on the absolute prohibition of violence against convicted women and on how to receive such complaints, and guarantee independent investigations of such complaints;
• Abolish forced labour as a criminal punishment and regulate voluntary labour with guarantees of fair remuneration, safe working conditions, and compliance with decent work standards;
• Fully implement the recommendations of the ILO supervisory bodies and International Labour Conference Resolution on Belarus (June 2023), including receiving an ILO mission with effective access to detention facilities;
• Reconsider criminal cases and release all women in detention whose incarceration poses an immediate threat to their health or life, on humanitarian grounds.

Other topics
The Committee also expressed its views on the following topics: women, peace and security; gender stereotypes; gender-based violence against women and girls; trafficking and exploitation of prostitution; women's participation in political and public life; education and health; economic and social benefits; women's employment and sexual harassment in the workplace; rural women; refugee, asylum seeking and migrant women; lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women; marriage and family relations. The recommendations can be read in full here.