Iryna Slaunikava elected BAJ Gender Commissioner

The posi­tion of Gen­der Com­mis­sion­er has been intro­duced at BAJ in accor­dance with the organization’s Gen­der Pol­i­cy, adopt­ed in Sep­tem­ber. The BAJ Board has con­firmed the organization’s Deputy Chair, Iry­na Slau­nika­va, in this role.

Iry­na Slau­nika­va. Sep­tem­ber 18, 2026, Vil­nius. Pho­to: BAJ

Iry­na Slau­nika­va has been a mem­ber of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists since 2001 and has served as the organization’s Deputy Chair since 2018. From 2021 to 2025, she was impris­oned in Belarus for her jour­nal­is­tic work. After her release and forced removal from Belarus, she returned to work­ing in media.

Role and functions of the Gender Commissioner

In accor­dance with the BAJ Gen­der Pol­i­cy adopt­ed in Sep­tem­ber, the BAJ Board appoints a Gen­der Com­mis­sion­er to coor­di­nate the imple­men­ta­tion of the Pol­i­cy. The Com­mis­sion­er is respon­si­ble for the orga­ni­za­tion­al sup­port of the Policy’s imple­men­ta­tion, for pro­mot­ing com­pli­ance with its pro­vi­sions, and for devel­op­ing a gen­der-sen­si­tive approach in BAJ’s work.

The main func­tions of the Gen­der Com­mis­sion­er include:

• coor­di­nat­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the Pol­i­cy and pro­mot­ing its prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion;
• par­tic­i­pat­ing in the devel­op­ment, review, and updat­ing of inter­nal pro­ce­dures con­cern­ing gen­der equal­i­ty, non-dis­crim­i­na­tion, and the pre­ven­tion of harass­ment and vio­lence;
• advis­ing BAJ lead­er­ship, staff, and mem­bers on the appli­ca­tion of the Pol­i­cy;
• help­ing to orga­nize train­ing, aware­ness-rais­ing, and infor­ma­tion activ­i­ties on gen­der equal­i­ty and a safe work­ing envi­ron­ment;
• mon­i­tor­ing and assess­ing the effec­tive­ness of the Policy’s imple­men­ta­tion, tak­ing part in the col­lec­tion of aggre­gat­ed infor­ma­tion, and prepar­ing pro­pos­als for improv­ing inter­nal mech­a­nisms;
• han­dling com­plaints with­in the pre­lim­i­nary and for­mal com­plaint pro­ce­dures;
• coop­er­at­ing with exter­nal experts and with human rights, gen­der, and oth­er spe­cial­ized orga­ni­za­tions;
• pro­mot­ing the devel­op­ment of a gen­der-sen­si­tive approach in BAJ’s man­age­ment, orga­ni­za­tion­al, and pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties;
• devel­op­ing pro­pos­als for mea­sures aimed at elim­i­nat­ing iden­ti­fied bar­ri­ers, short­com­ings, and risks.

In car­ry­ing out these func­tions, the Gen­der Com­mis­sion­er is oblig­ed to main­tain con­fi­den­tial­i­ty, avoid con­flicts of inter­est, and act in good faith, impar­tial­ly, and in the inter­ests of imple­ment­ing the Pol­i­cy.

The Gen­der Com­mis­sion­er is respon­si­ble for the prop­er, time­ly, and con­sci­en­tious per­for­mance of the duties assigned to them with­in the author­i­ty grant­ed. Improp­er per­for­mance of duties, dis­clo­sure of con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion, abuse of author­i­ty, or actions that under­mine trust in the mech­a­nisms for imple­ment­ing the Pol­i­cy are con­sid­ered vio­la­tions of the Pol­i­cy.

BAJ pro­vides the Gen­der Com­mis­sion­er with the orga­ni­za­tion­al con­di­tions nec­es­sary to car­ry out these func­tions, includ­ing access to infor­ma­tion with­in the scope of the man­date, the abil­i­ty to inter­act with the organization’s gov­ern­ing and exec­u­tive bod­ies, and, where pos­si­ble, resources for train­ing and for con­sul­ta­tive and expert sup­port.

Pro­ce­dures and com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels for con­tact­ing BAJ’s Gen­der Com­mis­sion­er will also be devel­oped and pub­lished in the near future.