2025-09-26

Members of the International Paralympic Committee voted not to maintain the partial suspensions of the National Paralympic Committees of Belarus and Russia at the 2025 IPC General Assembly in Seoul, restoring both to full IPC membership rights.

The decision came after separate motions to fully or partially suspend each committee failed to reach the required majority. For Russia, members first voted against full suspension by 111 to 55, with 11 abstentions, and then voted down partial suspension by 91 to 77 with eight abstentions. For Belarus, the comparable motions failed by 119 to 48 with nine abstentions and 103 to 63 with 10 abstentions.

The outcome matters because both committees had been partially suspended since the 2023 IPC General Assembly for breaches of constitutional membership obligations. With this vote, the IPC said the two members regain their full rights and privileges in accordance with the organisation’s constitution. The governing body also said it will work with the committees to put practical arrangements in place as soon as reasonably possible.

The vote does not erase the political sensitivity around the two countries, but it does settle the immediate procedural question inside the Paralympic movement. The assembly, which brought together national paralympic committees, international federations and international organisations for sport for the disabled, had to decide whether to continue or deepen the sanctions. It chose neither.

The size of the votes suggests members were not persuaded that the suspensions should continue. In a process where a majority of 50% plus one was required, the defeat of all four motions means the existing restrictive regime fell away automatically. The IPC’s statement makes clear that the practical effect is a return to normal membership status.

That has implications for future participation, representation and governance within the Paralympic system, though the supplied evidence does not detail exactly how quickly those changes will show up in competition entries or administrative rights. What it does show is that the governing assembly has now taken a different view from the one it held in 2023.

The vote also comes against the background of continuing international pressure over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Belarus’s role in supporting Moscow. The IPC statement itself is procedural rather than political, but the context around the vote is unavoidably geopolitical. Even so, the result is best understood as a constitutional decision taken inside sport’s own governance system.

For the IPC, the practical task now is to convert the vote into administrative reality. That means updating membership arrangements and making sure the two committees’ rights are restored in line with the constitution. For athletes and officials, the result will be watched closely as a sign of how the Paralympic movement intends to balance sanctions, governance and membership rights going forward.