To the Secretary General The International Trade Union Confederation Sharan Burrow

To the Secretary General

The International Trade Union Confederation Sharan Burrow

FAO: Heads of trade union organizations     8 June 2022

Dear Sirs!

We, representatives of political parties, organizations, movements and initiatives representing the citizens of the Republic of Belarus, the state-founding state of the United Nations, participants of the “Forum of the Democratic Forces of Belarus”, representing the people of Belarus and acting on the basis of Jus Resistendi. We are asking you to convey the position on the situation with the human rights and workers’ rights in Belarus at the 110th session of the International Labour Conference, held in Geneva from May 27 to June 11, 2022

Over the past two years, more than fifty thousand people have been repressed for political reasons in Belarus, which was recorded by international organizations. Over one and a half thousand citizens are in prisons for political reasons, hundreds have already been sentenced to long term. Several dozen people were killed by representatives of the Lukashenko regime.

Lukashenko’s criminal group amended the legislation providing for the death penalty allegedly for preparing for the crime and far-fetched attempts to commit terrorist crimes. About a hundred citizens of Belarus can be executed for their political views.

Among detained – the BKDP President and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Vice-President Aliaksandr Yarashuk, who also holds the post of vice president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and is part of the administrative council of ITUC; BKDP Vice-President Siarhei Antusevich; BKDP secretary for international issues Oleg Podolinsky and BKDP lawyer Elena Yeskova, Gennady Fedynich, leader of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU)). On 19 April 2022, more than twenty leaders and activists of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) were detained by State Security.

The people of Belarus have been exhausted by all funds to force the criminal group Lukashenko to comply with the social contract and observe natural human rights.

Belarus ratified all eight fundamental conventions of the International Labor Organization, including the Convention on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)

In the report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Conventions and Recommendations of the 110th Session of the International Labour Conference (#ILC2022), published in March 2022, experts are concluded on violations of the fundamental conventions of ILO No. 87 “Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention” and No. 98 " Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention."

We are asking you to accept comprehensive efforts to engage an article 33 of the ITUC charter in relation to Belarus: “If any member of the organization does not fulfil the recommendations that may be contained in the notification of the commission or in the decision of the International Court, the administrative council may recommend conferences such actions that it will consider appropriate to ensure the implementation of these recommendations.” Similar measures were previously applied to Myanmar.

We count on the solidarity of trade union organizations with the workers and the people of Belarus in the struggle for freedom.

With respect,

Tsepkalo Valery, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1994-1997), Ambassador of Belarus to the United States (1997-2002), Director of the Belarusian High-Tech Park (2005-2017), government expert of the UN Secretary-General in the field of communication and information technologies and information security (2005), candidate for the presidency of

Belarus (2020)     Karach Olga, Director of the International Center for Civic Initiatives "Our House", Belarus

Tsepkalo Veronika, head of the Belarusian Women's Fund, laureate of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought (2020), Martin Luther Fearless Word Prize (2021), Charlemagne Prize (2022)               Shibarshina Lyubov, Deputy Director of MCGI OUR HOUSE (Poland)

Khazin Ruslan, DAR          Horton Vera, BelDiasporaTV presenter

Dmitrenok Vadim Gennadievich, Mutual Financial Aid Cooperative "B4B"       Kotovich Olga Aleksandrovna, Fundacjia Żyvi

and others.