Countering Extremism

Extremism today constantly asserts itself, violating the most important human rights: to life, freedom, and security. It is becoming one of the most pressing problems of the modern world.

The legal framework for combating extremism consists of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the Law of the Republic of Belarus of January 4, 2007 No. 203-Z "On Counteracting Extremism", other legislative acts, and international treaties of the Republic of Belarus.

Extremism (extremist activity) — activity of citizens of Belarus, foreign citizens or stateless persons, or political parties, trade unions, other public associations, religious and other organizations, including foreign or international organizations or their representations, formations and individual entrepreneurs aimed at planning, organizing, preparing and committing attacks on independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty, the foundations of the constitutional order, public security by means of:

  • violent change of the constitutional order and (or) territorial integrity of the Republic of Belarus;
  • seizure or retention of state power by unconstitutional means;
  • creation of an extremist formation or participation in an extremist formation;
  • facilitating extremist activity, undergoing training or other preparation for participation in such activity;
  • dissemination for these purposes of knowingly false information about the political, economic, social, military or international situation of Belarus, the legal status of citizens in Belarus, discrediting the country;
  • insulting for these purposes a public official in connection with the performance of his official duties, discrediting public authorities and administration;
  • creation for these purposes of an illegal armed formation;
  • carrying out terrorist activities;
  • incitement of racial, national, religious or other social hatred or enmity, political or ideological hatred, hatred or enmity towards any social group, including committing for these purposes unlawful acts against public order and morality, the order of administration, life and health, personal freedom, honor and dignity of the individual, property;
  • organization and carrying out of mass riots, acts of vandalism involving damage or destruction of property, seizure of buildings and structures, other actions grossly violating public order, or active participation in them on grounds of racial, national, religious or other social hatred or enmity, political or ideological hatred, hatred or enmity towards any social group;
  • committing for these purposes illegal actions with respect to weapons, ammunition, explosives;
  • propaganda of exclusivity, superiority or inferiority of citizens based on their social, racial, national, religious or linguistic affiliation;
  • distribution of extremist materials, as well as production, publication, storage or transportation of such materials for the purpose of distribution;
  • rehabilitation of Nazism, propaganda or public display, production, distribution of Nazi symbols and paraphernalia, storage or acquisition of such symbols or paraphernalia for the purpose of distribution;
  • obstruction of lawful activities of state bodies, including the Central Commission of the Republic of Belarus for Elections and Republican Referendums, election commissions, referendum commissions, voting on recall of a deputy, lawful activities of officials of these bodies, commissions, committed with the use of violence, threat of its use, deception, bribery, as well as the use of violence or threat of violence against relatives of the said officials in order to obstruct their lawful activities or compel them to change the nature of such activities, or out of revenge for the performance of their official duties;
  • financing of extremist activity;
  • public calls for organizing or holding for these purposes illegal meetings, rallies, street marches, demonstrations or picketing in violation of the established procedure for their organization or holding, or involving persons in participation in such mass events through violence, threat of violence, deception or payment of remuneration, other organization or holding of such mass events, if their holding negligently resulted in the death of people, causing grievous bodily harm to one or more persons or causing damage on a large scale;
  • public calls to actions specified in paragraphs 2–17 of this part, as well as public justification of such actions.

Extremist materials — symbols and paraphernalia, information products (printed, audio, audiovisual and other information messages and/or materials, posters, portraits, banners and other visual agitation, advertising products) intended for public demonstration, use and distribution, or distributed in any way for the purpose of involving in extremist activity and its propaganda and recognized as extremist materials by a court decision.

Extremist organization — an organization carrying out extremist activity, or providing other assistance to extremist activity, or recognizing the possibility of its implementation in its activities, or financing extremist activity, in respect of which a court decision has been adopted and entered into force recognizing it as extremist.

Extremist formation — a group of citizens carrying out extremist activity, or providing other assistance to extremist activity, or recognizing the possibility of its implementation in their activities, or financing extremist activity, in respect of which a decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the State Security Committee has been adopted recognizing it as extremist.

Extremist symbols and paraphernalia — used for the purpose of carrying out extremist activity or its propaganda, including through public display, and when calling for activities and actions specified in paragraphs 2–17 of part 1 of this article, flags, anthems and other musical works, uniform attributes, swastikas, emblems, symbols, graffiti, logos, pennants, badges and other distinctive signs or their copies, other similar objects, including objects that are or may be objects of copyright, related rights, industrial property rights, including Nazi symbols and paraphernalia, as well as any images of persons in respect of whom there is a final court verdict in connection with the commission of actions specified in part 1 of this article.

Financing of extremist activity — provision or collection of funds, securities or other property, including property rights, exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity, in any way for the commission of actions specified in paragraphs 2–16, 18 and 19 of part 1 of this article, both by individuals and by extremist organizations and formations.

Regulatory legal acts:

Constitution of the Republic of Belarus

July 9, 1999 No. 275-Z

Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus

January 6, 2021 No. 91-Z

Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus

Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of April 16, 2013 No. 196

"On certain measures to improve information protection"

Law of the Republic of Belarus of January 3, 2002 No. 77-Z

"On Combating Terrorism"

Law of the Republic of Belarus of January 5, 2022 No. 146-Z

"On the Genocide of the Belarusian People"

Law of the Republic of Belarus of May 14, 2021 No. 103-Z

"On Preventing the Rehabilitation of Nazism"

Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of February 14, 2023 No. 40

"On Cybersecurity"

Decision of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly of April 25, 2024 No. 5

"On Approval of the National Security Concept of the Republic of Belarus"

Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of October 12, 2021

"On Measures to Counter Extremism and Rehabilitation of Nazism"

Resolution of the Security Council of the Republic of Belarus of March 18, 2019

"On the Information Security Concept of the Republic of Belarus"

Types of liability for carrying out extremist activities

Administrative liability

The Republic of Belarus establishes administrative liability (Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus) for the distribution, production, storage, transportation of information products containing calls for extremist activity or promoting such activity.

The subject of this administrative offense is information products: containing calls for extremist activity; promoting extremist activity; included in the republican list of extremist materials. The republican list of extremist materials is posted on the official website of the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus: http://mininform.gov.by/

The subjects of this administrative offense are natural persons (regardless of whether they are recognized as the author of the materials), as well as legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. A natural person who has committed the above actions with respect to products included in the list of extremist materials will be held administratively liable under part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus.

A page in a social network — is a mass media, therefore posting extremist materials on social network pages (Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, etc.) or putting likes, making reposts constitutes an administrative offense.

All content sent by other people or viewed files placed in "Telegram" chats, the messenger by default saves files to the "Telegram Desktop" folder. The path to it depends on the operating system. Similarly, automatic saving of files occurs in the "Viber" messenger. In both cases, users can change application settings to prohibit automatic saving.

Storage of materials means the actual presence on the device (mobile phones, tablets, computers, etc.) of files recognized as extremist. Participation of an Internet user in groups or chats of social networks (recognized as extremist), carrying out activities in them, leaving comments, messages, forwarding the above files to other members of the group constitutes an administrative offense, namely storage of materials for the purpose of distribution.

According to the sanction of this article, a natural person may be subject to: a fine of 10 to 30 basic amounts, community service, or administrative arrest for up to 15 days, with mandatory confiscation of the subject of this administrative offense. Additionally, confiscation of the instruments and means of committing the offense may be applied.

Criminal liability

According to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, criminal liability is established for a number of acts of an extremist nature.

Article 3611. Creation of an extremist formation or participation in it

Creation of an extremist formation, as well as a formation whose activities are aimed at rehabilitating Nazism, or leadership of such a formation or its structural unit – are punishable by restriction of liberty for up to five years or imprisonment for three to seven years.

The same acts committed repeatedly or by an official using his official authority – are punishable by restriction of liberty for 3 to 5 years or imprisonment for 6 to 10 years.

Entry of a person into an extremist formation for the purpose of committing a crime of an extremist nature (participation in an extremist formation) – is punishable by restriction of liberty for up to 4 years or imprisonment for 2 to 6 years.

Article 3612. Financing of extremist activity

Provision or collection of funds, securities or other property, including property rights and exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity, in any way for knowingly ensuring extremist activity, activity aimed at rehabilitating Nazism – are punishable by arrest, or restriction of liberty for up to 5 years, or imprisonment for 3 to 5 years.

The same acts committed repeatedly, or by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, or by an official using his official authority – are punishable by imprisonment for 5 to 8 years with a fine.

Article 3613. Participation on the territory of a foreign state in an armed formation or armed conflict, military actions, recruitment or training of persons for such participation

Participation of a citizen of the Republic of Belarus or a stateless person permanently residing in the Republic of Belarus on the territory of a foreign state in an armed formation of one of the opposing sides, as well as participation in an armed conflict, military actions without authorization of the state and in the absence of signs of a crime under Article 133 of the Criminal Code – are punishable by restriction of liberty for up to 5 years or imprisonment for 2 to 5 years.

Recruitment, training, other preparation or use of citizens of the Republic of Belarus or stateless persons permanently residing in the Republic of Belarus to participate on the territory of a foreign state in an armed formation of one of the opposing sides, in armed conflicts, military actions, as well as financing or other material support of such activity in the absence of signs of a crime under Article 132 of the Criminal Code – are punishable by imprisonment for 5 to 10 years with or without a fine.

Article 3614. Assistance to extremist activity

Recruitment, other involvement of a person in extremist activity, training, other assistance to extremist activity – are punishable by restriction of liberty for up to 4 years or imprisonment for 2 to 6 years with or without a fine.

The same acts committed repeatedly, or by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, or by an official using his official authority – are punishable by restriction of liberty for 2 to 5 years or imprisonment for 3 to 7 years with or without a fine.

Article 3615. Undergoing training or other preparation for participation in extremist activity.

Undergoing training or other preparation by a person, knowingly for the trainee intended for his subsequent participation in extremist activity – is punishable by restriction of liberty for up to 3 years or imprisonment for the same term.

Attention! Extremist organizations actively use the Internet. Before clicking the "Subscribe" button on any information resource, find out more about it, make sure of its constructive orientation.

Attention! Extremist organizations actively use the Internet. Before clicking the "Subscribe" button on any information resource, find out more about it, make sure of its constructive orientation.

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The republican list of extremist materials can be found on the website of the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus

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Information on measures to counter extremism and rehabilitation of Nazism can be found on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus

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The republican list of extremist formations can be found on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus

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Telegram users have access to a service for checking an Internet resource for extremism. You can check the resource of interest by clicking the button

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