About us

Mission

The Belarusian Helsinki Committee works in order to reanimate the meaning of human rights and to ensure that human rights are included in all spheres of life.

 

Our target audiences

NGO. We help public organizations and initiatives to add ("discover") the human rights aspect to their work. #joint reports to international mechanisms #joint assistance to target audiences #human rights based approach #database. More information for the TA.

Business. We help businesses to understand the topic of “business and human rights” and provide basic tools for implementing appropriate approaches to processes and products. We help investors to understand the country context in the topic "business and human rights". #due diligence #guidelines #training for companies #analytics of the situation in the country. More information for the TA

Professional legal community (lawyers, law students). We protect the professional community using international mechanisms, develop training and educational materials, and organize an internship program for students. Some materials for TA: video blogs "Reanimation of meanings", the manual "Proceedings on the elimination of gaps in regulatory legal acts, exclusion of collisions and legal uncertainty in them", recommendations of Belarusian NGOs on amendments and additions to the draft Law "On amendments and additions to some laws of the Republic of Belarus on improving the activities of the bar".

People. We develop memos on the most sensitive or confusing issues. Our lawyers advise citizens on issues related to human rights violations for free, prepare amicus curiae expert opinions for the court. 

 

Main topics

Analysis of trends and policies on human rights in Belarus and the region, discrimination, business and human rights, human rights based approach, international human rights mechanisms, socio-economic rights.

 

Key products

The National Human Rights Index. This product is created by a group of civil society experts under the overall coordination of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. We provide a general assessment of the human rights situation and assessment in three categories (socio-economic rights, civil and political rights and general measures in the field of human rights), evaluate specific rights, their components and indicators of the ideal situation. We are doing this index for three reasons: 1) so that interested professionals can quickly assess the overall human rights situation in Belarus, and not collect information from disparate sources; 2) to show how the situation is changing; 3) in fact, the index shows the direction of human rights reforms that our country needs.

Human Rights in Belarus: Key Trends in Public Policy. This review will highlight the substantive changes in Belarusian public policy in the field of human rights and reactions to it of the international community in three areas: general measures: systemic things — legislation, strategies, policies, that generally determine the conditions and background for the implementation of human rights in Belarus; law enforcement: concrete violations of civil and political rights, as well as in the field of social, economic, and cultural rights; key decisions and reactions of international institutions regarding the situation with human rights in Belarus. Our analytics is for a better understanding of the trends and situation with human rights in Belarus and for the possibility of monitoring systemic and essential changes, as well as for expanding the human rights focus in related expert spheres (economic, political, social, etc.). It also can be used for justification of positions, opinions, policies, and strategies.

The Human Rights Standards Database for Lawyers and Project Managers. Resource saves time and helps to quickly navigate international human rights standards for key queries. It helps to quickly increase the initial expertise on the necessary aspect of human rights, and strengthen the legal document (complaint, statement) with relevant international human rights standards. At the same time such information is not available in popular professional databases. The database helps project managers and representatives of government agencies to navigate the human rights agenda regarding Belarus.

Business and Human Rights Guidelines helps businesses quickly understand the topic of “business and human rights” and provides basic tools for implementing appropriate approaches to business processes.

All our analytical materials are in the “documents" section.

 

Principles

We act according these ethical principles and design our processes and products with a human rights based approach. We also use the following guideline on defenition political prisoners.

 

Additional information

The BHC is a member of The Council of Europe Contact Group on Relations with Belarus.

The organization has consultative status with the UN ECOSOC (since July 2022).

The previous head of the organization Aleh Hulak is a laureate of the Franco-German Prize "For Human Rights and the Rule of Law".