June 3, Pozirk. Belarus, along with Argentina, Egypt, Myanmar, Nigeria, Panama, Tunisia, Turkey, Ecuador and Eswatini, ranked among the ten worst countries for workers in the 2026 International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) Global Rights Index.
The systematic persecution of independent trade unions and unionists continued in the country in 2025, the analysis said. The index described the invocation of Article 33 by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as “a rarely used measure aimed at ensuring compliance by countries that repeatedly flout its recommendations.”
Belarusian authorities refuse to recognise the mandate of the ILO special envoy, continue to imprison independent unionists and weaponize trials in absentia against union representatives, the document noted.
Belarusian workers have been deprived of their fundamental freedom to form and join unions of their own choosing after officials cracked down on the independent union movement through arbitrary dissolution and illegal takeover, according to the index.
On May 21, Ihar Siekreta, Belarus’ deputy foreign minister, told foreign diplomats in Minsk that Belarus perceives the ILO measures as interference in internal affairs and demands that they be revoked as “unjust” and “politically motivated.”
The ILO demanded, among other things, that Belarus release persecuted trade union leaders, allow independent trade unions to operate freely and engage with an ILO-appointed special envoy.
The ILO adopted Article 33 compliance measures only twice in its history, also against Myanmar in 2001.
