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The Council of Ministers of Belarus, by Resolution No. 423 of Aug. 20, approved regulations governing the organization of trips abroad by minors.
The document applies to the organization of children’s trips for medical treatment, international events, competitions, exhibitions and other purposes, except for international events in which minors participate on behalf of the Republic of Belarus.
An organized group may travel abroad only with approval from a government body. Depending on the nature of the event and the purpose of the trip, approval will be granted by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Sport, the Republican Center for Health Improvement and Sanatorium and Resort Treatment of the Population (the Center), regional executive committees or the Minsk City Executive Committee.
To obtain approval, the organizer must submit to a regional executive committee, the Minsk City Executive Committee or the Center, no later than 30 days before the departure date, a letter about the organized group’s trip explaining the reasons for the trip and specifying the international event, its location, dates, purpose and other details. In exceptional cases, the letter may be submitted within a shorter period.
The letter must be accompanied by an invitation from the event organizer, if available; information about the trip organizer; the regulations, rules or other document governing the international event; its program; a list of group participants; information about the sources of funding for the trip; the route to and from the event, including the mode of transport and accommodation; written consent from the legal representatives of the minors; and copies of insurance policies for each minor.
Government bodies must review the submitted documents within five working days. In exceptional cases, the review may be completed within one day. The review period may also be extended to 10 days.
After reviewing the documents, regional executive committees, the Minsk City Executive Committee and the Center will forward them to the relevant government body. The body will have another five days to review the documents and decide whether to approve the trip.
Grounds for refusing approval include an unfavorable epidemiological or other situation in the country of entry or in a country along the organized group’s route to and from the international event; the inability to adequately complete educational programs; and failure to meet the deadline for obtaining approval for the trip.
The resolution was adopted two months after an attack on a bus carrying Belarusian children in Russia’s Bryansk region. On June 17, a bus carrying Belarusian children traveling to the Russian resort city of Gelendzhik came under a drone strike. A woman accompanying the group was killed, and eight people, including six children, were injured. Moscow said the bus was attacked by a Ukrainian drone, while Kyiv rejected the allegations and called the incident an information provocation.
After the incident, Aliaksandr Lukashenka proposed placing organized trips by children abroad under state control.