|
Risks that women human rights defenders face in Belarus
Nadya Avsievich, NGO Kalegium, the city of Pinsk, Belarus
Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to speak about Belarusian experience.
I live in the city of Pinsk with the population of 132 000 people, which is situated in the south-west of Belarus. I am the chairperson of NGO Kalegium. We have 14 members (11 of them are women) and for about 20 volunteers in our organization. Kalegium mainly deals with such issues as gender stereotypes breaking and drug prevention. NGO Kalegium as well as every other NGOs in Belarus can be considered a human right defending organization because it seeks promotion, protection and realization of civil, social and cultural rights of its members.
I will speak about the risks women and HR organizations face in Belarus in the context of my organizations activities – I must say the experience of Kalegium is very typical, I mean every Belarusian NGO faces such risks.
Then I will also give you the examples of some other women and organizations, which can be regarded as show cases.
Refuse to register NGOs (delay in registration)
In accordance with Belarusian law every NGO needs registration. To get registered Kalegium had to struggle hard with the Department of Justice for more than half a year. For example we had to correct and in fact rewrite our statute six times to meet the requirements of the department of justice. The whole procedure was so long and complicated (the registration of our NGO was delayed 3 times), that the only aim of it as I understand now was to make people tired and desperate and to give up the very idea of registration. Finally we wrote to the Department of Justice that such a long delay of registration violated our rights and was against the law, and in case they went on delaying we would go to the court. After that Kalegium got registered in May 1999.
Project on empowerment girls’ groups in Pinsk– protection of girls’ and women’s rights to live in the country free from gender stereotypes
Year 2001 was the time when my female colleagues and I realized that teenaged girls of the new generation were brought up the same way my peers and I had been brought up (I was born in 1967 and the majority of my colleagues are my peers). We were trying to find answers for such question as: Why are boys encouraged to be active and girls - to be passive by family and school? Why boys are taught to win and girls are taught to wait patiently? Why girls are kept away from the process of decision-making, why are they taught to be afraid of being responsible? And finally - why each new generation learns the same gender stereotypes? We discussed gender equality much at Kalegium and decided to start doing something to protect young girls and women’s right to live in the country free from gender stereotypes.
Kalegium got acquainted with some Swedish women's organizations and studied their experience of working with youth on raising gender awareness. We liked the project “Rubble and Roses” on empowerment of the girls' groups carried out by Women's Organizations' Committee Against Alcohol and Drugs. The aim of the project is to strengthen the girls, to make them seen and heard, to encourage them to become personally and socially active so they become able to make their own decisions and take responsibility. 10 members and volunteers of our organization (I was also in this team) went to Sweden and were trained Rubble and Roses methods.
After that we decided to start 5 groups each contained of 8-15 girls aged 15-17 at local secondary schools.
Authorities prevent NGOs from accessing target groups
Frankly speaking it was not easy to launch that project. NGOs in Belarus are not welcome to schools and working places. Very soon we understood that even such a small organization as ours was a threat to the authorities because of having views and opinions different form official ones and daring to speak out and to influence other people’s mode of thinking.
At the local department of education we were treated with suspicion. We spent much time and efforts explaining what was "gender", what was the difference between "gender" and "sex", why it was necessary to combat gender stereotypes and empower girls. Finally the agreement to launch the project was made and we went to schools. But we faced double standards. The Head masters of a couple of schools told us that the department of education recommended them not to deal with Kalegium.
Finally we managed to break through. The school for children of vulnerable behaviour welcomed our project. My colleague Tanya and I worked with teenaged girls who had been kicked from normal schools for missing classes, crime commitment, drinking, taking drugs, glue sniffing. The project was very successful at that school (the girls’ behaviour changed a lot for the better) – that news spread quickly and other schools welcomed us too.
Refuse of state run media to publish information about NGOs’ activities; refuse to let premises for NGOs
We tried hard to spread the information about the project and about our NGO through local newspapers. But Pinsk newspapers (all of them were state-owned) did not publish any information about us saying that that was not the issue to be of any interest for the readers.
We also faced one more problem. In accordance with Belarusian law every NGO must have so called juridical address – it cannot be just a home address of one of the organization’s member. In order to have this juridical address an organization must rent some room in an administrative building (which is very expensive). Internet connection and telephone calls for administrative premises are very expensive as well. For many NGOs the main source of income is membership fee (as NGOs in Belarus are not financed by the state), but as it is not enough to pay monthly rent for administrative premises, many NGOs just get closed down”.
Constant checks of the department of justice, tax inspection and other authorities with the aim to find faults with NGOs and close them down
Every year Kalegium (as well as other NGOs) is checked by many authorities. The authorities say such checks provide better conditions for NGOs’ activities. But in fact they are organized with the aim to close NGOs down. Belarusian NGOs can be closed down for having received 2 warnings a year. Reasons for receiving warnings can be ridiculous. For example if the name of an NGO on it’s seal is not in inverted commas – it will receive a warning. The officer of the department of justice who checked Kalegium’s papers last year told me openly: “You can relaxed a bit. I haven’t received an order to close you down yet”.
“Snowball” project multiplied in other parts of Belarus
We didn't expect that our empowerment of the girls’ groups project would become a movement first in Pinsk and then in some other cities of Belarus (like Grodno, Mogilev, Luninets, Mikashevichi).
First our girls didn't want to stop meeting. We discussed it and found the solution – we gave them training and they became leaders of younger girls' groups.
Then Pinsk teachers, social pedagogues and other specialists working with youth asked us to teach them the Rubble and Roses methods - so we did and they started to use those methods in their work with youth.
In a while we received calls from different other Belarusian cities like Grodno, Mogilev, Luninets, Mikashevichi and the requests to come and tell people about the empowerment of girls' groups - we organized several workshops there.
Then we started one group of older girls and young women aged 19 -23.
Kalegium decided that the girls’ groups movement should have it’s magazine – Girl Power (the electronic version can be found at our web-page www.kalegium.org )
We also thought that the process of gender stereotypes breaking also requires involving the boys. While working with the girls’ group it was important that the girls should strengthen their self-confidence and become leaders in their life. The boys’ leadership qualities are well-developed. They are constantly competing with each other and often think that they can solve all the problems by means of physical power. At the same time boys are lacking communicative skills – ability to listen and hear the others, to discuss and to respect others’ opinions. While working with boys we paid special attention to building up communication on the principles of partnership, but not on the principles of dominance-sub ordinance.
As you understand it’s very hard for Belarusian NGO to work under the present conditions. But my colleagues and I have a motto: “Don’t give up, do what can be done – even if you can do one concrete good thing, it will change the world for the better”.
The examples of some other women and organizations, which can be regarded as show cases.
· A risk to be subjected to criminal persecution:
This year the criminal case was started against Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) and its chairperson Tatyana Protko for avoiding to pay taxes in the frame of TACIS project. In spite of the fact that the economic court of the city of Minsk later cancelled all the accusation against BHC, the department of financial investigation of the Committee on state control continues the criminal case against Tatyana Protko.
· A risk to be subjected to administrative persecution:
In October 2004 Tatyana Revyako from closed down Human Right Center “Vyasna 96” was fined for distributing copies of the report of Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe on missing politicians in Belarus.
· A risk to lose a job:
In 2003 Raisa Mikhailovskaya, the executive director of recently closed down NGO “Legal Aid to Population” was dismissed from Belarusian State University where she was working as a chief redactor at the faculty of management and social technologies. She made many attempts to find a job in state-run organizations, but all of them ended in failure. Since then she could find employment only in NGO sphere.
· A risk to get physically and psychically traumatized:
In October 2003 Raisa Mikhailovskaya, the executive director of recently closed down NGO “Legal Aid to Population” was collecting signatures during election campaign to support Oleg Volchek, the candidate to the Parliament. She was suddenly beaten by an unknown man, who cried out: “See you in my office soon!”.
During election campaign in 2001 Tatyana Revyako from closed down Human Right Center “Vyasna 96” suddenly found out that both her home and mobile telephones were switched off, though she was sure she had paid the bills. Also her e-mail address and Internet connection were blocked. Tatyana also told me that her child was subjected to persecution at school.
What specific actions could improve the situation of women HRDs in Belarus in relation to the implementation of the EU guidelines?
I discussed this issue with Tatyana Revyako from closed down Human Right Center “Vyasna 96” (Minsk), Raisa Mikhailovskaya from recently closed down NGO “Legal Aid to Population”, Vera Stremkovskaya from Center on Human Rights (Minsk), Oleg Gulak from Belarusian Helsinki Committee (Minsk), Natalia Chuvirova from NGO “Provincia” (Borisov), NGO Kalegium (Pinsk). Here are their suggestions:
· Maximum attention to the situation in Belarus (discussing it on different levels, highlighting in mass media);
· Establishing contacts with different organizations abroad;
· Providing with different resources (information, methods of work, finances);
· Moral, political and financial support to women HRDs (and their families) in case a woman gets under oppression.
e-mail:kalegium#brest.by
www.kalegium.org
|
