UN rapporteur calls for legal protection of Belarusians unable to return home for fear of persecution

November 27, BPN. The UN special rapporteur has urged countries to establish effective mechanisms to provide legal status to Belarusians who were forced to leave their country and unable to return for fear of persecution.

Anaïs Marin, the UN special rapporteur on Belarus, points out in her report that the Belarusian government uses a combination of laws, policies and practices to compel dissidents to leave.

The practices that have forced many Belarusians to flee their country include raids on private homes and offices, arbitrary detention, criminal prosecution on politically motivated grounds, lack of access to a fair trial, the threat of force or coercion against them or their families, disciplinary dismissal from work, banishment from professional associations, and psychological pressure induced by the predominant environment of fear.

Reported arrests and detention on spurious criminal charges upon return and intensified threats of retaliation against those who left have instilled additional fears that prevent a safe return.

The report examines in detail accounts of harassment of civil society activists, journalists, opposition activists, cultural figures, lawyers, students, academics and athletes.

The rapporteur has urged other countries to ensure the availability of humanitarian pathways to entry, promote inclusion and an enabling environment for Belarusians in exile to continue meaningfully participating in public life in Belarus.

She points out that states must observe the principle of non-refoulement and exercise due diligence to avoid placing individuals at risk.

The principle of non-refoulement protects persons from being transferred to a state in which their fundamental rights are in danger when there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be subjected to human rights violations. Protection against refoulement is multifaceted and includes allowing the stay of Belarusian nationals in a given country of destination and preventing their transfer to Belarus through return, expulsion or extradition procedures.

The report is primarily based on first-hand information received by the rapporteur during some 30 interviews conducted in person and remotely with Belarusians compelled to go into exile in countries of the European Union and Georgia.

Belarusians who disapprove of their government’s policies were left with three equally unappealing options: censoring themselves as a means of survival; voicing their criticism, thereby exposing themselves and possibly their relatives to persecution; or leaving the country.

All persons who had to leave Belarus and find themselves under the jurisdiction of another state are protected under international human rights law regardless of their legal status or circumstances, the report stresses.

“All those who fled were reluctant to do so. Most of them recounted a range of challenges concerning separation from families, leaving behind their spouse, children, friends and colleagues, severing social ties, discontinuing work or studies and abandoning homes and other material assets,” it says.

All of those interviewed still had no certainty as to when it would be safe for them to return home, and where to return to.

Multiple privately interviewed sources recounted similar experiences of terror: “We lived in constant fear that men in plain clothes would come to our door in the early morning hours and raid the place in search of anything that could be used as grounds for arrest, including pictures or messages on private social media accounts. No one knew what to expect; we feared torture and criminal prosecution on spurious charges,” one interviewee said.