Minister of Justice speaks on Belarusian civil society

At a special press-conference on 26 January in Minsk, the Belarusian Minister of Justice Viktar Halavanau said 94 NGOs were granted registration and only 28 were closed down in Belarus in 2008.

The minister said over 70% of the liquidated NGOs had not been active in 2008, some of them had brutally violated the Belarusian legislation. ‘We just had to sue such organizations and close them down by force of law,’ said Halavanau.

‘We were very cautious when closing them down,’ he added.

In total, at present there are 16 political parties, 36 trade unions, 2,221 public associations, 22 unions and 75 foundations in Belarus.