Experts of non-profit organizations Lawtrend and OEEC have prepared and present an analytical document based on the results of the research «How the Regional Social & Political Situation Impacts the Belarusian Civil Society Organisations’ Condition. The CSOs Acting under Relocation».
This analytical document is a continuation of systemic operations pertaining to monitoring and assessing the conditions, needs or prospects of the Belarusian civil society organisations’ activities. The authors hereof look into the problems, challenges, requirements, operational conditions and planning horizons specific to an individual target groups of the Belarusian CSOs, which have found themselves under the forced relocation (staying abroad) circumstances.
The years between 2021 and 2023 have witnessed some unprecedented repressions against the Belarusian civil society. The pressure brough to bear by the civil society organisations, including a mass-scale winding-up, by their members or participants, also in the forms of penal persecution with long prison terms given and a general social and political situation in the country have compelled many a CSO to relocate in full or in part. Unlike previously, when numerous CSOs registered abroad and transferred their financial activity hubs there due to the complications related to registration and financial operations in Belarus, it is the decision-making hub that is often transferred abroad now.
Considering the fact that the relocated CSOs represent a vital component of the Belarusian civil society, keep on their activities in the interests of Belarus and have a high potential to lobby their country’s interests abroad, the authors hereof do believe that this research will foster a better understanding of the broader picture and a better strategy development across the Belarusian civil society in its entirety. The research findings may likewise be used to advocate the interests of the Belarusian organisations relocated abroad, which fact is paramount under the conditions when many organisations have essentially found themselves in new jurisdictions.
