Belarus /
RPF The Human Rights Committee has registered and will consider two individual communications concerning strikes in Belarus. Communication No. 4289/2023 addresses the strike at Belaruskali in August 2020, and Communication No.4285/2022 – the Nationwide strike called for by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in October 2020. The Committee's decisions will likely set a precedent – the Committee has never expressed its views on the merits in a case concerning a strike.
Respect-Protect-Fulfill co-represents the complainants in both cases.
More about Communication No. 4289/2023
In August 2020, the strike committee of Belaruskali announced a strike at the state-owned enterprise. The following demands were issued: to declare the official voting results of the 9 August 2020 presidential elections invalid, to prevent persecution of the strikers, and to make several changes in the working process. Less than a month later, following the lawsuit of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Minsk Regional Court declared the strike illegal. This decision was the first one in the country's history. The strikers were subjected to a wave of repression: they were dismissed from Belaruskali and sentenced to administrative arrest several times.
In a complaint to the Committee, two members of the Belaruskali strike committee argued that the declaration of the strike as illegal had breached their rights to freedom of association with others and freedom of expression. Moreover, they argued that their dismissals from Belaruskali had been arbitrary. The official reason for dismissals was that they had been absent from the workplace for more than 3 hours without a valid excuse, whereas the workers were absent from the workplace due to participating in the strike at Belaruskali. Finally, the workers argued that their multiple prolonged administrative detentions for participating in peaceful protests amounted to torture.
More about Communication No.4285/2022
Many workers who joined the Nationwide strike were subjected to persecution – the most frequent example of one was dismissal for being absent from the workplace for more than 3 hours without a valid excuse.
In the complaint lodged with the Human Rights Committee, three former workers of state-owned enterprises and one former public school teacher argued that their dismissals for being absent from the workplace for more than 3 hours without a valid excuse was arbitrary because during the "absence" hours they participated in the Nationwide strike, and in Belarus it was legally impossible to organise a lawful strike.
Why these cases are important
● The views of the Committee will apply to all those dismissed for taking part in the strikes. If the Committee finds violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all the victims will be considered victims of persecution on the ground of political opinion.
● Dismissals of workers happened in accordance with the laws in force. The Committee's recognition of the complainants' rights violations will signal the need for changes in this area, and an analysis of the relevant legal provisions will serve as the basis for future reforms of Belarus’ laws concerning strikes.
● The only decision in a case concerning a strike was rendered by the Committee in 1986: the communication was held inadmissible. The registration of our complaints is already a precedent. The upcoming views adopted by the Committee will have a global influence, affecting the Committee’s case-law on the same subject matter as the cases mentioned above.