MINSK, 1 October (BelTA) – We need a law to define who can be regarded as civil society, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with senior officials of the Belarus President Administration on 1 October, BelTA has learned.
“We have discussed this issue more than once. I have put forward this idea several times,” the president noted. “What is civil society in Belarus? It is high time we adopted a law and decided that civil society is not made up of non-governmental organizations, non-for-profit organizations and others of a kind. This law should spell out that civil society refers to public organizations (enumerate them there), trade unions, the BRSM Youth Union, veterans' and women's organizations. These are the organizations who have showed what a true civil society is. They are large membership organizations and they are the pillars of our society,” the head of state said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko added that he once spoke about it at a trade unions meeting. “No progress has been made so far,” he said.
