Participants in the 36th Meeting of Belarusians of North America proposed beginning work on the creation of a World Belarusian Congress. The forum was held in New York on Sept. 5-7, the organizers told Reform.news.
The meeting was organized by the Belarusian-American Association and the Association of Belarusians in Canada. About 100 people took part, including representatives of Belarusian organizations from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Poland.
The World Belarusian Congress is envisioned as a representative and coordinating body bringing together organizations and communities from different countries. At the same time, participants stressed that the new structure should not limit the independence of existing organizations or take over their functions.
The model, structure, powers and principles of representation of the congress have not yet been determined. Participants proposed putting these issues up for broad discussion among the Belarusian diaspora.
Participants also proposed creating a working group to strengthen Belarus’ presence in the global information space. It would audit Belarusian information, academic, cultural and archival resources, identify the main problems and prepare a long-term action program.
The proposals include creating publicly accessible sources about Belarus in Belarusian and other languages, improving the country’s representation on Wikipedia, in international encyclopedias and educational resources, digitizing Belarusian archives abroad and supporting independent media. Particular attention would be paid to how information about Belarus is presented in search engines and artificial intelligence products.
In a resolution adopted at the end of the forum, participants also called for developing permanent ties between diaspora organizations, joint projects and international representation of Belarusian interests.
Meetings of Belarusians of North America have been held since 1952. The current forum was attended by Chairwoman of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic Ivonka Survilla. It also featured addresses by Zianon Pazniak, Pavel Sieviaryniec and Archbishop Sviataslau, Primate of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
