Contact Group on Belarus

 Who is doing what?

Committee of Ministers 

The Committee of Ministers has been at the forefront of work to support Belarusian democratic forces and human rights defenders. In September 2022, it invited Secretary General to set up a Contact group to work with representatives from the Belarusian democratic opposition and report back. The aim is to provide Council of Europe support and expertise to strengthen Belarusian democratic society in line with the Organisation’s core values and along the activities for human rights, rule of law and democracy. To this end, the Contact Group ensures a pioneering framework for expert co-operation with Belarusian democratic forces and civil society in unprecedented conditions whereby they operate in exile against the background of ongoing political repressions in Belarus.

At its 134th Session, held in Luxembourg on 13-14 May 2025, the Committee of Ministers “reaffirmed its engagement for the work of the Contact Group on co-operation with Belarusian democratic forces and civil society, which has continued to provide an efficient and innovative framework for co‑operation, and reiterated the need to find ways to enhance co-operation with Russian and Belarusian human rights defenders, democratic forces, free media and independent civil society who are fully committed to the Organisation’s values, principles and goals, and welcomed the initiatives undertaken in this respect by the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional authorities, as well as the agreement signed between the Council of Europe and Lithuania on the establishment of a Council of Europe Information Point for Belarusian people in Vilnius (Lithuania)”.

It should also be recalled that the Ministers’ Deputies hold regular meetings with Ms Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and other representatives of Belarusian democratic forces in exile.

Parliamentary Assembly

The Parliamentary Assembly – which brings together parliamentarians from the Council of Europe’s 46 member states –has emphasised its strong support for Belarusian democratic forces, condemned repression by the Lukashenka regime, called for free and fair elections in the country, and demanded the release of political prisoners. The leader of Belarus’s democratic forces Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has addressed the Assembly on several occasions.

In a 2025 resolution, the Assembly said the so-called presidential elections in Belarus in January 2025 “lack any democratic credibility” and as a result it sees “no grounds for recognising the legitimacy of Aliaksandr Lukashenka as president”. In a resolution a year earlier, the Assembly set out wide-ranging proposals to build a democratic future for Belarus, including the creation of a representative delegation of Belarusian democratic forces to the Assembly, which has participated in its work since January 2025. The Assembly has also established a General Rapporteur for a Democratic Belarus.

A June 2023 resolution on Belarusians in exile called for legal and practical steps to ease their stay outside Belarus, and to support Belarusian education and culture outside the country. Concrete actions – "The Luxembourg Solutions"– were developed in 2024 , with parliamentarians and Belarusian democratic forces to carry this work forward. An IT tool to support the implementation of “The Luxembourg Solutions” is currently under preparation.

The Assembly has also demanded an international tribunal for Belarusian leaders involved in aggression against Ukraine. It awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize to Belarusian human rights activist Maria Kalesnikava in 2021, condemned her detention and welcomed her release in December 2025.

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The Congress, as an active member of the Contact Group, implements activities aimed at promoting democratic values in line with the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. A specific focus is placed on the key role of local authorities to promote and uphold human rights, and engage with women, youth, and under-represented groups.

In November 2023, the Congress gathered in Strasbourg a group of activists from diverse political affiliations, carefully selected with representatives of the Contact Group, for a first peer exchange on the principles and standards needed to establish an efficient local self-government system. Since then, the Congress has provided expertise in local self-government reform in view of a future democratic transition.

As of 2024, the Congress has implemented activities focusing on political support to the Belarusian democratic forces and on the provision of capacity development and expertise to guide the preparation of reforms and related legislation on local self-government and multilevel governance, based on the European Charter of Local Self-Government (which has been translated in Belarusian) and the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance.

In January 2024, Congress members attended the Helsinki Dialogue, and in March 2024, the leader of the Belarusian democratic forces Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya addressed the Congress at its 46^th plenary session.

In late 2024, Congress experts reviewed the “Local Self-Government Concept for a New Belarus” prepared by the Belarusian democratic forces and organised a series of online workshops to discuss about concepts and principles of local self-government, dimensions of decentralisation, and transition stages towards a free and democratic Belarus. A second series of webinars was conducted in December 2025 to delve into models of local self-government, good democratic governance, and democratic participation.

In March 2025, a representative group of the Belarusian democratic forces participated for the first time in history in a Congress session, following a decision of the Congress Bureau to invite such delegation to participate in the Congress sessions and statutory committees. In October 2025, the participation in the 49th session of the Congress was marked by the co-organisation of a side event on local responses to transnational repression against Belarusians abroad.

In December 2025, the Congress Rapporteur on a Democratic Belarus conducted a field visit to Poland (as the country where a large part of the Belarusian diaspora resides) with a view to drafting a report on the Belarusian democratic forces, including on local solutions to transnational repression. During this visit, a roundtable was organised in Warsaw to present a Congress’s expert analysis of the draft law on local self-government and relevant provisions of the draft Constitution of a democratic Belarus.

Commissioner for Human Rights

As part of his vital role in protecting human rights defenders, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights consistently called for support for Belarusian civil society following the suspension of relations with the Belarusian authorities. In 2022, the Commissioner stressed the importance of offering them stable residency in host countries, providing social benefits to them and their families, facilitating their work and easing the process of legal registration for new legal bodies. He welcomed the fact that some member states have implemented relocation and protection policies and called on others to follow suit.

Safety of Journalists Platform

The Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists is a Council of Europe collaboration with 15 international NGOs and journalists’ associations that issues alerts concerning media freedom violations and safety of journalists in Council of Europe member states. It has monitored media freedom violations in Belarus since 2023 and as of mid-December 2025 had reported one case of impunity for murder and 32 journalists held in detention.

  History

Belarus has ratified twelve of the Council of Europe’s conventions, including the  anti-doping convention, the convention on the recognition of higher education qualifications and the convention against trafficking in human beings. Belarus also participated in various formats in the work of the European Commission for Democracy through Law, known as the Venice Commission, in the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) , in the Group of States against Corruption and in the European Pharmacopoeia. This participation has been either stopped or put on hold after 2022.

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