Aleh Aheyeu: Belarus should join Council of Europe

The Coun­cil of Europe Con­tact Group on Belarus met last week in Stras­bourg to dis­cuss plans for 2024–2025. Atten­dees includ­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the new­ly elect­ed Coor­di­nat­ing Coun­cil, the Office of Svi­at­lana Tilhanouskaya, and the Unit­ed Tran­si­tion­al Cab­i­net. The group also includ­ed human rights defend­ers and youth orga­ni­za­tions from the pub­lic sec­tor. The media sec­tor was rep­re­sent­ed by Aleh Aheyeu, Deputy Chair­man of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and lawyer.

Aleh Aheyeu. Pho­to: BAJ

Course on strengthening independent media

For two days, meet­ings were held with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of var­i­ous struc­tur­al units of the Orga­ni­za­tion to dis­cuss the bien­ni­al plan. There was also a recep­tion at the Pol­ish Mis­sion attend­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Coun­cil of Europe mem­ber States.

“At both meet­ings, the sit­u­a­tion in Belarus was dis­cussed, includ­ing an overview of the country’s cur­rent affairs, the process­es tak­ing place in Belaru­sian dias­po­ra, and the assis­tance the Coun­cil of Europe can pro­vide,” explains Aleh Aheyeu. “The Coun­cil of Europe does not pro­vide direct assis­tance to the media. Instead, it sup­ports stan­dards of free­dom of speech and mon­i­tors the ful­fill­ment of com­mit­ments made by Coun­cil of Europe mem­ber states.”

The fact that the Belaru­sian state is not a mem­ber of the Coun­cil of Europe and that the mem­bers of the Con­tact Group do not rep­re­sent state bod­ies had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the sub­ject under dis­cus­sion.

One of the key objec­tives of the Coun­cil of Europe Con­tact Group on Belarus is to rein­force the inde­pen­dence of the Belaru­sian media sec­tor.

A meet­ing between rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Belaru­sian demo­c­ra­t­ic forces and diplo­mats. Pho­to: x.com/plpermrepcoe

Two events took place in 2023: in Stras­bourg and War­saw. The Coun­cil of Europe has devel­oped a coop­er­a­tion plan for 2024–2025. For the first time in its his­to­ry, the Coun­cil is inter­act­ing direct­ly with non-state actors, rather than rep­re­sen­ta­tives of state bod­ies.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, the per­cep­tion was that only states and state insti­tu­tions were sub­jects of coop­er­a­tion. How­ev­er, the struc­tures of the Coun­cil of Europe – from the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al to indi­vid­ual divi­sions – are now engag­ing in com­mu­ni­ca­tion and joint work with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of civ­il soci­ety and demo­c­ra­t­ic forces.

“It is of great impor­tance to us that Belarus becomes a mem­ber of the Coun­cil of Europe. It is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of all demo­c­ra­t­ic forces involved in coop­er­a­tion to cre­ate con­di­tions that will allow Belarus to take its place among civ­i­lized coun­tries in the event of a change of pow­er and polit­i­cal reforms. This will be achieved by respect­ing democ­ra­cy, human rights, and the rule of law. The Coun­cil of Europe is based on these three pil­lars – it is about val­ues, not eco­nom­ics,» Aleh Aheyeu empha­sized.

“The events that have already tak­en place and those that are being planned are designed to increase the aware­ness of the Coun­cil of Europe’s activ­i­ty in the Belaru­sian soci­ety and, accord­ing­ly, to facil­i­tate coop­er­a­tion between the Coun­cil of Europe and us.”

A meet­ing between rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Belaru­sian demo­c­ra­t­ic forces and diplo­mats. Pho­to: x.com/plpermrepcoe

The Council of Europe Contact Group on Belarus: what is it?

Since March 1993, Belarus has been a can­di­date mem­ber of the Coun­cil of Europe. How­ev­er, as a result of the activ­i­ties of the Lukashen­ka regime, the coop­er­a­tion between the struc­tures of the Coun­cil of Europe and the offi­cial Min­sk is con­stant­ly decreas­ing. As a result, the Coun­cil of Europe Con­tact Group on Belarus was estab­lished in Sep­tem­ber 2022. This group includ­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Belaru­sian demo­c­ra­t­ic forces and civ­il soci­ety.

The cre­ation of the Con­tact Group on Belarus is a unique case. For the first time, a coun­try is rep­re­sent­ed not by state insti­tu­tions, but by demo­c­ra­t­ic forces and civ­il soci­ety.

The Coun­cil of Europe is the con­ti­nen­t’s old­est inter­na­tion­al polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tion. Its pri­ma­ry objec­tives are the pro­tec­tion of human rights, the advance­ment of democ­ra­cy, and the rein­force­ment of the rule of law in all mem­ber coun­tries.

The Coun­cil of Europe was estab­lished on May 5, 1949, and cur­rent­ly com­pris­es 46 Euro­pean coun­tries. Its head­quar­ters are locat­ed in Stras­bourg, France. Rus­sia was expelled from the Coun­cil of Europe in March 2022 fol­low­ing its aggres­sion against Ukraine.