While archeological evidence points to settlement in today's Belarus at least 10,000 years ago, recorded history begins with settlement by Baltic and Slavic tribes in the early centuries A.D. Belarus has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and the first recorded settlements date back to the 6th century AD. With distinctive features by the ninth century, the emerging Belarusian state was then absorbed by Kievan Rus' in the 9th century. Belarus was later an integral part of what was called Litva, which included today's Belarus as well as today's Lithuania. The princes of Kiev ruled Belarus until the invasion of the Mongols in 1240, when most of its towns were destroyed. The region came under the control of powerful Lithuanians and, in 1386, under the Lithuanian-Polish Jagiellonian Dynasty. For centuries, the Poles and the Muscovites struggled bitterly over Belarus. Belarus was the birthplace of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Belarusian was the state language of the Grand Duchy until 1697, in part owing to the strong flowering of Belarusian culture during the Renaissance through the works of leading Belarusian humanists such as Frantzisk Skaryna). Belarus was the site of the Union of Brest in 1597, which created the Greek Catholic Church, for long the majority church in Belarus until suppressed by the Russian empire, and the birthplace of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who played a key role in the American Revolution. In 1772, Catherine the Great gained control over part of the country, and, by 1795, Russia ruled all of Belarus. Belarus was occupied by the Russian empire from the end of the 18th century until 1918. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the country again became a European battleground. Napoleon passed through Belarus--and fought there--in 1812, and the Germans fought the Soviets on Belarusian territory in World War I. Belarus declared its short-lived National Republic on March 25, 1918, only to be forcibly absorbed by the Bolsheviks into what became the Soviet Union. Although a Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in January 1919, fighting with Poland continued until 1921. Belarus suffered heavy losses in World War II, when some 2.2 million inhabitants perished. Belarus was retaken by the Soviets in 1944. It declared its sovereignty on July 27, 1990, and independence from the Soviet Union on August 25, 1991. It has been run by the authoritarian Aleksander Lukashenko since 1994. The postwar period saw a significant rebirth--especially in the economic sphere. According to its amended 1994 Constitution, Belarus is a republic with a directly elected President. The President, Alexander Lukashenka (elected in 1994), used a November 1996 referendum to amend the 1994 Constitution in order to broaden his powers, extend his term in office, and replace the unicameral Parliament with a handpicked one, ignoring the then-Constitutional Court's ruling that the Constitution could not be amended by referendum. Most members of the international community criticized the flawed referendum and do not recognize the legitimacy of the 1996 Constitution or the bicameral legislature that it introduced. On September 9, 2000 Lukashenka renewed his term of office as President through an election process that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) described as neither free nor fair and as having failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections. Parliamentary elections were held in October 2000, the first since the 1996 referendum. The President and his administration manipulated the election process to ensure an absolute minimum of antiregime candidates and opposition members of the Parliament. The OSCE concluded that the elections were neither free nor fair.

The system of law of the Republic of Belarus currently consists of the following branches: constitutional law, civil law, administrative law, criminal law, labour law, family law, land law, financial law, law of criminal procedure, law of civil procedure, law of execution of criminal punishment, etc. Rules of law, being a content of legal institutes and branches of law, are created while lawmaking activity of competent state bodies of the Republic of Belarus, and thus the rules of law assume some exterior forms. Such the exterior forms are first of all legal acts of the Republic of Belarus - fundamental sources of law in the Republic of Belarus. All the legal acts of the Republic of Belarus are divided into two big groups: legislative acts and secondary legislation. The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus is the Fundamental Law of the Republic of Belarus, having supreme legal force. Legislative acts also cover laws enacted by the Parliament and ordinances of the President which may have the force of laws in accordance with the Constitution. Decrees of the President, Decisions of the Government as well as legal acts of ministries and other governmental departments and acts of Local Councils of Deputies and Local Executive Committees are the most important acts of secondary legislation.

The crime rate in Belarus is reportedly low compared to other industrialized countries. According to the United Nations Sixth Annual Survey on Crime, crime recorded in police statistics shows the crime rate for the grand total of recorded crimes in Belarus to be 1250.89 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1997. This compares with 1,506.50 for Japan (country with a low crime rate) and 9,622.10 for USA (country with high crime rate). For intentional homicides (an exception to the low crime rate), the rate in 1997 was 9.94 for Belarus, 0.54 for Japan, and 6.80 for USA. For major assaults, the rate in 1997 was 15.80 for Belarus, compared with 382.31 for USA (no data given for Japan). For rapes, the rate in 1997 was 5.62 for Belarus, 1.31 for Japan, and 35.93 for USA. For robberies, the rate in 1997 was 56.58 for Belarus, 2.23 for Japan, and 186.27 for USA. For total thefts, the rate was 604.75 for Belarus, 931.65 for Japan, and 2893.41 for the USA. For automobile theft, the rate in 1997 was 19.98 for Belarus, 213.49 for Japan, and 505.99 for USA. The rate of burglaries for 1997 was 119.48 for Belarus, 175.81 for Japan, and 919.35 for USA.

A drastic decline in living standards and the general breakdown in law and order throughout the former Soviet Union have contributed greatly to a dramatic rise in crime in Belarus (though the rate of crime reported to the United Nations is still quite low). In the first half of 1993, Belarus's murder rate increased by almost 50 percent and muggings by almost 60 percent. Common street crime continues to increase, especially at night and in or near hotels frequented by foreigners. Foreigners, and particularly foreign cars, tend to be targets of crime. Organized crime is present in Belarus as well. Independent Belarus has also become a transshipment point for illegal drugs intended for Western Europe; locally produced opium and cannabis supply Belarus's own populace. Perhaps one of the more public crimes in the republic is corruption in the government. Although Alyaksandr Lukashyenka campaigned on an anticorruption platform, accusations of corruption have stuck to his administration. In December 1994, Syarhey Antonchyk read a report in the Supreme Soviet charging a number of high-level administration figures with corruption, which lead a number of these figures to offer their resignations. Lukashyenka refused to accept the resignations and banned four independent newspapers from publishing the report. Such incidents are generally acknowledged to be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Between 1995 and 1997, according to the Sixth Annual Survey, the rate for all recorded crime increased from 1275.64 to 1250.80 per 100,000 in Belarus, an decrease of 1.9%. The rate of intentional homicide increased from 9.29 to 9.94, an increase of 7.0 %. The rate for major assaults increased from 13.73 to 15.80, an increase of 15.1%. The rate for rape increased from 5.32 to 5.62, an increase of 5.6 %. The rate for robberies decreased from 57.03 to 56.58 per 100,000, an decrease of 0.8%. The rate for total thefts decreased from 752.79 to 604.75, a decrease of 19.7%. The rate for automobile theft increased from 13.73 to 15.80, an increase of 15.1 %. The rate of burglaries decreased from 122.44 to 119.48, an decrease of 2.4%.

The legal system of the Republic of Belarus as well as legal systems of other states of continental Europe belongs to the Roman-Germanic Law Family. Roman Law (jurisprudence of Ancient Rome) is the primary source of this law family. The main characteristics of the Roman-Germanic Law Family are: optimal generalization of a rule of law, dividing of law into public and private, and separating of different branches of law. The sources of Belorussian Feudal Law rank among the other world ancient legal sources (such as the Code of Hammurabi, the Law of the Twelve Tables, the Justinian Code, the Napoleonic Code), and date back to the Statutes of the Grand Duchy Litovskae of 1529, 1566 and 1588 years. The legal system of the Republic of Belarus was influenced essentially by those states which influenced the country in particular historical periods (Poland - during the 17th-18th centuries, Russia - during the 19th-20th centuries). During the most part of the 20th century Belarus was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR) and this fact surely affected the legal system of today's Belarus (its legal culture, formation of the branches of law, etc.) After the break-up of the USSR, the legal system of the Republic of Belarus separated from the so-called Socialistic Law Family. The structure of the legal system of the Republic of Belarus contains three groups of legal elements. Rules of law, legal principles and legal institutes (normative aspect) form the first group. The second group contains the totality of legal institutions (organizational aspect). And the third one is formed with the totality of legal views, opinions, and conceptions peculiar to Belorussian's standard of legal development. The first group of elements of the structure of the legal system of Belarus can be described as the system of law of Belarus. The system of law of Belarus is historically formed and has an objectively existing outer structure of law. Such the structure is defined by the character of social relations regulated and appears in the unity and coherence of interrelated rules of law and their dividing into branches of law and legal institutes. A branch of law is the basic structural division of the system of law of Belarus. Totality of legal institutions constitutes the second group of elements of the structure of the legal system of Belarus. These are first of all state bodies empowered by the Constitution and by other laws with lawmaking function - the National Assembly (Parliament), the President, the Council of Ministers (Government), ministries, state committees, Local Councils of Deputies and Local Executive Committees of the Republic of Belarus. Legal institutions also cover law-enforcement bodies (judicial bodies, prosecution bodies, bodies of internal affairs), public law-protection organizations (Belorussian Community of Consumers, Confederacy of Lowers of Belarus) etc. The third group of elements composing the structure of the legal system of the Republic of Belarus covers sense of justice (as one of forms of public consciousness) and standards of legal development. Sense of justice is a system of legal theories, views, ideas, conceptions, notions, estimations, dispositions, and feelings expressing attitudes of individual persons, social groups, and the entire Belorussian society towards existing legislation, different legal phenomena, behavior of people and activities of the state in the field of law. Standards of legal development characterize levels of individual and public sense of justice and reflect a degree of functioning of the whole legal system in Belarus. In the 1990s, the legal system of the Republic of Belarus achieved an new phase of its development. Obtaining independence and status as a member of the world community by the country; adopting the Constitution which declares an individual, his (her) rights, freedoms and guarantees for their attainment as the supreme goal and value of society and the state; appearing of new possibilities of development of Belorussian economy in accordance with market canons - all these factors allows expecting step-by-step development of the legal system of the Republic of Belarus according to standards of law-abiding state and civic society. However, the process of formation of the legal system of any democratic state requires an essential period of time. A great number of economic, political, historical factors hamper this process of evolution. For Belarus these factors include a long-time domination of an anti-democratic regime; the originality of the character of Belorussian society;, and a breach of former economic relations that were formed during the Soviet period. Therefore, each of the elements composing the structure of the legal system of the Republic of Belarus has essential deficiencies. First of all is the low standard of legal development of Belorussian society - the legal nihilism of the people, their lack of faith in the law and lack of desire to obey the law. Imperfection of the system of legal institutions is being revealed, for instance, in the following. Though the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus determines the principle of separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers, there can be noted some merging of these branches (for instance, legislative and executive), i.e. democratic principle of checks and balances don't work properly in regard to the legal system of the Republic of Belarus, yet. And, finally, the system of law of the Republic of Belarus as totality of branches of law, legal institutes and rules of law is far from perfect. There are imperfection having to do with the existence of different rules of law, including constitutional ones; a lack of a clear hierarchy of legal acts and a contradiction of legal acts. Presently the legal system of the Republic of Belarus is closely interacting with the legal system of Russia. Time will show real extent of vitality of this legal system.

As with many other Belarusian institutions, the internal security forces were inherited more or less intact when the Soviet Union was dissolved, and the name of the country's security service remains the KGB. The local assets of these institutions were transferred to the new government and continued functioning with basically the same policies and, very often, the same personnel. The former communist, pro-Russian hard-liners still in charge of many of Belarus's institutions are determined to stay in power. One of their methods is censorship. They call newspaper editors in for "chats" about government policy and the subsidies that keep many periodicals afloat. They also enforced the media restrictions on coverage of the May 1995 parliamentary elections, which kept newspapers from publishing interviews with the candidates and stories about the campaign in general. The Committee for State Security (KGB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), both of which report directly to the President, share law enforcement and internal security responsibilities. Under the law, the President has the right to subordinate all security bodies to his personal command. Civilian authorities, apart from the President, do not maintain effective control of the security forces. Under Lukashenka's direction, the Presidential Guard--initially created to protect senior officials--continued to act against the political enemies of the Lukashenka regime with no judicial or legislative oversight. Members of the security forces have committed numerous serious human rights abuses. Security forces beat political opponents, detainees, and others Security forces arbitrarily arrest and detain citizens, and the number of apparently politically motivated detentions has greatly increased, although many of those detained are held for brief periods. The security services infringe on citizens' privacy rights and monitor closely the activities of opposition politicians and other segments of the population. Several credible reports surfaced during the year 2000 implicating senior levels of the regime in the 2000 disappearance of journalist Dimitry Zavadsky and the 1999 disappearances of opposition figures Yury Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar, and Anatoliy Krasovsky. Regime investigators and human rights monitors alleged that senior regime officials were involved in the killing of these individuals because of their involvement in political activities. Zakharenko, Gonchar, and Zavadsky had worked for the Government Lukashenka prior to joining the opposition.

The Constitution forbids arbitrary interference in a citizen's personal life; however, the regime did not respect these rights in practice. The inviolability of the home also is provided for by the Constitution, which states that "no one shall have the right to enter, without legal authority, the dwelling and other legal property of a citizen against such a citizen's will." The interception of telephone and other communications without a court order is prohibited; however, in practice regime monitoring of residences, telephones, and computers continues. The KGB, MVD, and certain border guard detachments have the right to use wiretaps, but under the law they must obtain a prosecutor's permission before installing them; however, the KGB enters homes, conducts unauthorized searches, and reads mail without warrants. The prosecutor's office exercises no independence; and the due process protections regarding wiretaps effectively therefore are meaningless. The Administrative Offenses Code provides penalties for those who obstruct KGB officers. For example, any effort to prevent KGB officers from entering the premises of a company, establishment, or organization is a criminal offense, as is any refusal by such entities to allow audits, or to deny or restrict access to company information systems and databases. Nearly all opposition political figures report that the authorities monitor their activities and conversations. The Lukashenka regime did nothing to refute these reports. Political, human rights, and other NGO's stated that their conversations and correspondence are monitored routinely by the security services. The Presidential Guard (or security service) reportedly continues to conduct surveillance activities of the President's political opponents. There is no judicial or legislative oversight of the Presidential Guard's budget or activities, and the executive branch repeatedly thwarts attempts to exercise such oversight. Some regime officials are themselves monitored. Militia officers assigned to stand outside diplomatic missions are known to keep records of visits by political opposition leaders. Some opposition figures express reluctance to visit some foreign embassies due to fear of reprisals. Harassment in the form of "inspections" and confiscation of political literature is widespread, particularly in the period prior to the September presidential election. Targets include opposition candidates and their supporters. Security officials routinely have raided and searched the apartments of opposition politicians, often without warrants. At the Bruzgi customs-house in the Grodno region, customs officers spent 2 hours searching the personal possessions of former presidential candidate Syamon Domash, who was on his way to Poland via automobile. None of the goods in Mr. Domash's possession were found to be in violation of the law. The customs officers never explained their actions. There have been widespread robberies of offices of several media outlets and NGO's, which were independently investigating the disappearances of prominent individuals associated with the opposition. In all cases, computers were smashed, but not stolen; only hard drives or floppy disks were removed, and nothing else of value was taken. Most human rights observers believe that these robberies were perpetrated by members of the security services. For example, on March 28-29, unidentified burglars broke into the headquarters of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. The thieves stole a computer database containing election monitoring and human rights records from the past 5 years. It was the third such "burglary" of the Committee's office in the last 4 years. None of the crimes have been solved. On May 29, the offices of the Human Rights Center, headed by human rights lawyer Vera Stremkovskaya were burglarized, and files of human rights violations were stolen. There have been no reports that the authorities made credible efforts to investigate these incidents.

The law places limits on arbitrary detention; however, security forces continue to arrest and detain citizens arbitrarily, most often in connection with demonstrations, some of which were not authorized The Criminal Procedure Code provides that police may detain a person for up to 3 hours without providing any explanation for the detention. Police may detain a person suspected of a crime for 24 hours without a warrant, within which time the procurator is notified. The procurator then has 48 hours to review the legality of the detention. If the procurator finds that the detention is legal, a suspect may be held for a maximum of 10 days without a formal charge. However, once the decision is made to hold a suspect, formal charges generally are filed. Once a suspect is charged, a trial must be initiated within 2 months, although in some cases the procurator general may extend pretrial detention to 18 months to allow for further investigation. Alternatively a suspect who has been charged can be released on a written pledge not to flee, in which case there is no time limit on pretrial investigation. The law gives detainees the right to apply to the court (rather than the procurator) to determine the legality of their detention. In practice suspects' appeals to have their detentions reviewed by the courts frequently are suppressed because detention officials are unwilling to forward the appeals. Statistics on the number of persons in pretrial detention and the average length of pretrial detention are not available. There is no provision for bail under the legal code. Despite legal protections, investigators routinely fail to inform detainees of their rights and have conducted preliminary interrogations without giving detainees an opportunity to consult counsel. The information gained in interrogations conducted without counsel is used against the defendant in court. Access by family members to those detained is at the discretion of the investigators and family members frequently are not notified when a family member, even a juvenile, was detained. The Administrative Code permits the detention of any citizen for up to 3 hours with no prosecutorial action whatsoever and the authorities frequently used this provision. These short detentions were used routinely in the period prior to the Presidential election on September 9, 2000 as a way to remove suspected leaders of opposition groups from the streets at critical moments. These detentions frequently lasted longer than the permitted 3 hours. For example, on September 1, 2000, 8 days before the election, Ales Belyatsky, one of the cochairmen of the independent domestic observation network, was detained for approximately seven hours. Authorities believed that Belyatsky and several others were organizing a protest at the World Cup qualifying match, and he was held until after the start of the match. Unidentified plainclothes officials working for the security services regularly apprehend and detain individuals engaged in antiregime demonstrations and in the distribution of opposition materials. There have been several reports that individuals and members of organizations involved in publishing opposition media have been arrested and detained. Security officers on occasion have preemptively arrested and detained organizers and individuals considered to be potential participants in demonstrations. Security officials have held some detainees incommunicado following demonstrations. In addition to the hundreds of antiregime protesters, whom authorities have held for several hours or days, authorities also have 7/19/02 held several prominent political detainees for prolonged periods of time in pretrial detention, some for more than a year.

The 1994 Constitution provided for an independent judiciary; however, in practice the judiciary was not independent and was unable to act as a check on the executive branch and its agents. Reforms adopted to support the independence of the judiciary in 1995 remained unimplemented. The 1996 Constitution further subordinated the judiciary to the executive branch by giving the President the power to appoint 6 of the 12 members of the Constitutional Court, including the chairman. The remaining six are appointed by the Council of the Republic, which itself is composed of individuals appointed by the President or those deferential to the President. The President appoints the chairmen of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Economic Court. The President has authority under the Constitution to appoint and dismiss all district and military judges. The criminal justice system has three tiers: district courts, regional courts, and the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Court was established to adjudicate serious constitutional issues; however, because it is dependent on the executive branch, it does not challenge presidential initiatives in practice. The Constitutional Court has no means of enforcing its decisions. Prosecutors, like the courts, are organized into offices at the district, regional, and republic levels. They ultimately are responsible to and serve at the pleasure of the Procurator General who is appointed by the Council of the Republic. Prosecutors are not independent and do not have the authority to bring charges against the President or the Presidential Administration. Pursuant to a 1997 Presidential decree all lawyers legally are subordinated to the Ministry of Justice, which controls the licensing of lawyers and, to a considerable extent, the bar association also is under Ministry of Justice control. According to international legal experts and human rights monitors, the decree has compromised seriously the independence of lawyers from the authorities. Both the 1994 and 1996 Constitutions provide for public trials, although exceptions may be made in cases established by law (for example, in cases of rape or on grounds of national security). For example, the trial of the individuals charged in the disappearance of ORT cameraman Dimitry Zavadsky was closed to the public for security reasons, since the defendants had previous links to the Ministry of Interior and were privy to state secrets, and to protect witnesses. Judges adjudicate trials; only in capital offense trials in which the defendant pleads not guilty and demands a jury trial do juries determine innocence or guilt. Judges are dependent on the Ministry of Justice for sustaining court infrastructure and on local executive branch officials for providing their personal housing. There have been widespread and credible reports that executive and local authorities dictate to the courts the outcome of trials; the Procurator's Office denies these assertions. Defendants have the legal right to attend proceedings, confront witnesses, and present evidence on their own behalf; however, these rights are not always respected in practice. By law detainees must be allowed unlimited access to legal counsel and for those who cannot afford counsel, the court appoints a lawyer; however, at times this right is not respected in practice. While the Constitution establishes a presumption of innocence, in practice defendants frequently must prove their innocence. According to 1998 statistics, the latest available, from the Belarusian Helsinki Committee criminal charges were brought by prosecutors against 59,700 individuals. Of these only 272, or fewer than 0.5 percent, were found to be not guilty. Both defendants and prosecutors have the right to appeal court decisions, and most criminal cases are appealed; however, appeals rarely result in reversals of verdicts. In appeals neither defendants nor witnesses appear before the court; the court merely reviews the protocol and other documents from the lower court's trial. Throughout the year, antiregime protestors arrested after demonstrations were subjected to assembly line-style trials, often without the right to counsel or the opportunity to present evidence or call witnesses. For example, Vinstuk Vyachorka, the leader of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front, was sentenced to 15 days in prison for holding an unsanctioned rally in March; at his trial he was allowed neither an appeal nor a closing statement.

Belarus ranks fourth in the world its prison population rate of 505 per 100,000 (compared to first in rank Russia with a rate of 685, followed by the United States with a rate of 645, and Cayman Islands with a rate of 575). Prison conditions remained poor and are marked by severe overcrowding, shortages of food and medicine, and the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis, syphilis, and HIV/AIDS. Prison guards regularly beat detainees and prisoners. According to Vladimir Kudinov, a member of the disbanded Parliament and vocal critic of the Lukashenka regime who spent 4 years in prison, torture is widespread in prisons. According to human rights monitors, conditions at prison hospitals were poor. Although official statistics on prison overcrowding were not available, OSCE Advisory Monitoring Group (AMG) officers who visited a detention facility in Vitebsk during June 1999 noted that in one cell, 16 female prisoners shared 10 beds, while in another, 14 prisoners between the ages of 14 and 17 shared 8 beds. One observer reported that the prisons of the Mogilev region are designed to hold a total of 8,550 inmates but housed more than 14,000. The average amount of space provided for each inmate was 1.2 square yards. Food provided in prisons does not meet minimum medical requirements. Male and female prisoners are held separately. Juveniles are held separately from adults, and pretrial detainees normally are held separately from convicted prisoners; however, due to prison overcrowding, they occasionally may be housed together. Detainees in pretrial detention facilities also report poor conditions and denial of medical treatment, which contributes to their declining health while they awaited trial.

Although statistics are not available, women's groups report that domestic violence, including spousal abuse against women, is a significant problem. Spousal abuse is punishable under the Criminal and Administrative Codes; nonsevere beating is punishable by a fine or up to 15 days imprisonment and more serious offenses are punishable by up to 15 years in jail. Women's groups have indicated that police generally enforce the laws against domestic violence, and that the courts generally impose these sentences. The primary problem remains a general reluctance among women to report instances of domestic violence due to fear of reprisal and the social stigma. Rape is a problem. A law against rape exists; however, most women do not report rape due to shame or fear that the police will blame the victim. Although the authorities and local human rights observers have reported that prostitution is not yet a significant problem inside the country, there has been much anecdotal evidence that it was growing. Street prostitution appeared to be growing as the economy has deteriorated, and prostitution rings have operated in state-owned hotels. Trafficking in women has been a serious growing problem. Sexual harassment reportedly has been widespread, but no specific laws deal with the problem other than laws against physical assault.

Belarus is both a source and a transit country for trafficked persons, primarily women. The law prohibits trafficking in persons; however, trafficking in persons is a serious and growing problem. There have been no reports of official involvement in trafficking; however, observers believe that given the extensive corruption that exists within the police and other agencies of the regime, such involvement is likely. According to country NGO's, several thousand Belarusian women have fallen victim to trafficking. Information from the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Bosnia, refer to Belarus as a country of origin for women being trafficked to or through their countries. Women from Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania are trafficked through Belarus to countries in Europe, primarily Germany and Poland. Other anecdotal evidence suggests that the Russian Mafia is active in trafficking young women to Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and Western Europe. The Ministry of Internal Affairs acknowledges that Russian criminal organizations actively may try to recruit and lure women into serving as prostitutes in Western Europe and the Middle East. Traffickers, who are associated with organized crime and drug trafficking, entice their victims through advertisements for lucrative jobs in newspapers and on the Internet. The Government of Belarus does not meet the minimum standards due to alack of resources and corruption. On January 1, 2001 Article 181 of the new Criminal Code for Belarus entered into effect. It penalizes trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual or other kinds of exploitation. The Criminal Code also criminalizes the hiring of individuals in order to exploit them sexually or otherwise. The authorities have begun to recognize and address the problem of trafficking in persons. In 1999 a Board of Morals and Illegal Distribution of Drugs was created by the Ministry of the Interior, but the Board has not been effective. The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Social Welfare are involved in antitrafficking efforts. In partnership with the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), the Ministry of Social Welfare established the Gender Information and Policy Center (GIPC), which also deals with this problem. The penalty for trafficking is between 5 and 7 years imprisonment. The penalty for trafficking is substantially less than that for rape or forcible sexual assault. At the time of this report, there was one open criminal case, and 12 cases had been proven. In theory the Government has programs to assist victims of trafficking and provide witnesses; however, in practice this does not occur. Women seldom report incidences of trafficking to police because of a generally negative public opinion about law enforcement authorities, shortcomings in legislation on the subject, and the insufficient protection of victims and witnesses. Victims generally are detained until the investigation identifies them as victims. Victims can be prosecuted for violations of other laws. No information is available on state or nongovernmental initiatives to help victims return to their countries. Crisis centers established by some NGO's do provide psychological assistance to victims of violence. However, such centers do not include specialists in dealing with victims of trafficking. In April 2000, the Ministry of the Interior held a seminar in cooperation with NGO's, in which NGO's discussed programs devoted to warning the public about the problem. The Belarus Young Christians Women Association (BYCWO) conducts a program to inform women of the risks associated with employment abroad and the minimization of possible dangers. The BYCWO also has established an information telephone line for women traveling abroad for reasons other than tourism. BYCWO receives more than 100 inquiries a month.

The economic, political, and geographical situation of Belarus gives it the potential to become a major drug transit and synthetic drug production site. Deteriorating economic conditions and a sharp drop in real wages continue to dislocate many workers and, among some in the population, encourage the belief that wealth can and should be acquired by any means possible. The Belarusian government currently lacks both the legislative framework and the financial resources to combat drug trafficking. Belarus’ location between Russia and the west combined with its good rail and road transportation system and a customs union with Russia that eliminates internal borders between the two countries add to Belarus’ potential as a narcotics transit corridor. Belarus also faces many organized crime problems that plague other countries of the former Soviet Union. The lack of Belarusian laws on organized crime could lead syndicates to use Belarus for not only drug production and trafficking, but also other drug related crimes such as money laundering. According to Ministry of Health data, the number of officially registered drug addicts in Belarus totals 5,000, with an estimated 700 to 800 new registrants per year. These statistics do not take into account unregistered addicts which are estimated to exceed the nominal 5,000 figure by a factor of ten. The drugs of abuse of choice in Belarus are opium derivatives like poppy oil. Cannabis is also widely abused. However, synthetic drugs, heroin, cocaine, barbiturates, and other drugs are being used in increasing amounts. The Minsk office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that many illegal immigrants in Belarus finance their trips to the West through narcotics smuggling. Belarus has all the resources necessary for the production of synthetic narcotics. The laboratory and technical capabilities are in place while many industrial facilities suitable for basic chemical production are idle. Law enforcement is not trained in the detection of synthetic drug manufacturing facilities. There is no legislation in Belarus dealing with precursor chemicals; the chemical industry, all government owned, is allowed to police itself. Control of precursor chemicals is not an issue that appears to be on the agenda of policy makers, or even law enforcement officials. Belarus is growing in importance as a transit country. Good rail and road connections running east to west and north to south are used to transport narcotics from areas such as Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Russia to the Baltic States, Poland, and Germany. Cases of drug heroin trafficking from Afghanistan destined for Poland and Germany have increased dramatically as a result of the customs union that eliminated internal borders between Belarus and Russia. No national drug abuse prevention strategy has been formulated in Belarus. The main emphasis is put on treatment and social rehabilitation of current drug addicts, while only limited efforts are devoted to prevention programs. Treatment for drug addicts is generally done in psychiatric hospitals, either as a result of Court Remand or self-enrollment. The emphasis of treatment is medical detoxification. Psychological counseling, and social rehabilitation is beyond the capacity of local institutions. Many crimes are associated with narcotics trafficking in Belarus. Smuggling is the most significant. Other crimes include: stealing narcotic and addictive substances, organizing or maintaining drug dens for using drugs, and forging medical documents with the aim of procuring drugs. There were 1,252 criminal cases related to illegal drugs in 1998 and 3,018 drug-related offenses during the same year. (More recent statistics are unavailable.) In 2001, there were no significant arrests or seizures of drugs, despite evidence of growing abuse and trafficking, but the first months of 2002 brought some large drug seizures. The enforcement effort against narcotics in Belarus suffers from lack of efficient coordination among the agencies charged with various aspects of narcotics control. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, KGB (External Intelligence), Customs Committee, Border Guards, and Ministry of Health are all involved. An interagency commission for combating crimes and drug abuse is supposed to coordinate the effort, but problems persist. Belarusian law does not provide for the seizure of assets of drug criminals. (Assets of businesses and political groups are routinely seized by the government.) There is not even provision for enforcement of correct title. For example a person found to have purchased a car stolen from Germany may keep the car as long as it was purchased legally in Belarus. Belarus is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, as amended by the 1972 Protocol, and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Belarus has signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants. Belarus is a member of INTERPOL and has a department of 12 people dealing with cross border crime. Belarus has also joined regional efforts at law enforcement cooperation and has signed bilateral agreements on cooperation against organized crime and drug trafficking with many of its neighbors. Belarusian ruler Lukashenko has emphasized in policy statements the importance of strengthening the state’s capacity to fight organized crime and drug trafficking. Belarus signed an agreement in 1993 on drug control assistance with Italy, and plans to conclude similar agreements with Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden, and Germany. The GOB has also signed enforcement cooperation agreements with Lithuania and China. Belarus is a party to the CIS (Confederation of Independent States-Soviet successor states) Convention on Legal Assistance. The United States has not provided narcotics/justice sector assistance to the GOB since a U.S. policy of selective engagement became effective in February 1997.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS