Belarus lost over 1,300 NGOs since 2020 – human rights group

June 8, BPN. Belarusian civil society lost at least 1,315 non-profit organizations between the 2020 presidential election and late May 2023, says a recent report by Lawtrend, a Belarusian nonprofit.

At least 32 nonprofits were closed down from late April to late May, it noted.

As of late May, 845 NGOs were in the process of a forced liquidation or were stripped of their registration, while the number of organizations that filed for liquidation on their own kept rising and reached 470, it noted.

Pressure on NGO activists, the unfavorable legal environment, as well as deteriorating social and political conditions remain the main reasons for NGOs to self-liquidate.

The government has cut off NGOs’ access to foreign funding, while government-established NGOs organizations have been reaching out for foreign aid, Lawtrend noted.

Open data is not available on the amount of humanitarian aid that Belarus received in 2023. In 2022, it amounted to $87 million with $17.3 million donated by the United States.