A group of seven UN experts expressed alarm on Wednesday about a new law aimed at silencing LGBTQ+ voices and proponents of human and women’s rights in Belarus.

The experts were concerned that this repression would breed further harassment and marginalization of LGBTQ+ individuals, women, and other minority groups:

This law represents a dangerous escalation. It equates legitimate human rights advocacy with an administrative offence and risks further legitimising persecution against already marginalised groups and defenders of their rights … By conflating human rights advocacy and information about sexual orientation, gender identity and reproductive autonomy with administrative offences, the authorities are fuelling prejudice and legitimising discrimination.

The experts urged Belarus officials to review the bill and to carefully consider all of the concerns expressed before enacting the law.

On April 2, the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus approved a law that prohibits the distribution of “propaganda of homosexual relations, gender reassignment, childlessness, and pedophilia.” The bill imposes fines on both individuals and legal entities. Minors may also be fined or subjected to community service or administrative detention. “Propaganda” is vaguely defined in the law as the dissemination of “appealing” information that is “intended to influence citizens’ perceptions.”

The bill was a part of a broader introduction of multiple administrative offenses and the adjustment of presently existing offenses to bring them in line with current industry legislation. Human Rights Watch also said that this new bill represented yet another “blow” to LGBTQ+ people. The law inappropriately lumps together categories such as pedophilia and freedom of gender expression, breeding more stigmatization toward “non-traditional” sexual behavior classifications.

According to a recent survey, over 66 percent of queer people do not feel protected by police in Belarus in the event of a discriminatory attack. Moreover, only about 14 percent of individuals reported incidents of violence or discrimination to the police. Belarus’s new law thus parallels the events and atmosphere unfolding in Russia, whose Supreme Court has previously characterized the LGBTQ+ movement as “extremist.”