In 2017, Human Constanta opened a Free legal office for the protection of the rights of foreign citizens and stateless people in Belarus. The Free legal office works in two cities of Belarus:
in Brest, covering requests from the entire Brest region, and Minsk,
on requests from the rest of the country.
In 2021, Human Constanta, like many other civil society organizations in Belarus, was subjected to unjustified harassment and forced liquidation, which significantly hampered human rights and humanitarian work in the country.
The physical offices in Minsk and Brest were closed, so the personal reception of people was stopped. However, in 2022 we continued to provide free consultations to foreigners and stateless people on the protection of their rights in Belarus and to work with the humanitarian crisis on the border between Belarus and the countries of the European Union (EU), which began in the summer of 2021 and continues at the time of writing this report.
This report provides an overview of the activities of the Free legal office, the specifics of applications and a description of the legislative and enforcement challenges that we faced in 2022.