Belarus Changes Conscription Regulations

The new rules introduce many innovations.

The draft Belarusian law "On Amendments to Laws on Ensuring National Security" was adopted in the second reading.

The new document significantly changes the rules of conscription, and also introduces many innovations to the existing criteria for assessing new recruits. The most interesting thing in the new document is "establishing the possibility of informing citizens on visits to military commissariat and the state security body via SMS messages".

This paragraph raised many questions during the first reading. The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, First Deputy Minister of Defence Viktar Hulevich answered the questions. Then he said that such a message on a mobile phone would be equated to a conventional draft notice only in wartime.

Another interesting point from the new bill adopted in the second reading is "optimization of the procedure for assessing the health status of a conscript to determine the category of fitness for military service."

Most likely, after the official entry into force, the rules for conscription and the list of "illnesses" that give the right to postponement of service will be revised.

The new bill also toughens liability for offences related to the conscription and registration procedures for citizens subjected to military services.

Here are a few more points that are provided for in the document:

• providing citizens with additional guarantees and compensations in connection with their conscription or entry into military service

• the legal basis for the participation of citizens voluntarily in the performance of work of a defensive nature in peacetime

• updating the list of activities that make up the content of mobilization training and mobilization

• determination of the competence and functions of the authorized state body for mobilization preparation of the economy

• clarification of the list of categories of citizens entitled to deferment from conscription for mobilization

• empowerment of military commissars with the right to restrict travel outside the Republic of Belarus of citizens who violate the duties of military registration and evade military conscription measures

• expansion of the list of bodies which are obliged to inform the internal affairs bodies about the provision of accommodation for foreign citizens and stateless persons temporarily staying in the Republic of Belarus, as well as the establishment of administrative liability for non-fulfillment of such an obligation.

As the "deputies" noted, the new document is aimed at improving the effectiveness of responding to the challenges and threats of the modern world.