Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appointed Volha Harbunova as the Representative for Social Issues of the United Transitional Cabinet.
Volha, a former political prisoner, will focus on organizing systematic assistance to political prisoners and their relatives. She will also strengthen the Cabinet's international work on the issue of political prisoners in Belarus.
The United Transitional Cabinet Representative for Social Issues will be engaged in forming a consolidated platform of Belarusian public initiatives and organizations to facilitate better results in such areas as legal, social, psychological, and humanitarian assistance.
The Representative’s separate area of focus will be to assist lawyers in finalizing the Law on Rehabilitation, as well as other regulatory and legal documents, which will strategically determine the future development of Belarus as a social welfare state, with effective and efficient people-centered legislation, the institution of an ombudsman (human rights commissioner) and mechanisms protecting vulnerable sections of the population.
Volha Harbunova is the founder of a shelter for women and their children affected by domestic violence, former head of the Radzislava Public Association. For more than 10 years, she has trained representatives of law enforcement agencies, social protection and health care systems, psychologists and teachers to work with victims of family violence and minimize its severe consequences. For 20 years, she has been helping vulnerable communities, including women and representatives of the LGBT community, to protect their rights.
