The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus adopted the decision «On the Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus» on March 26, 2009.

In the decision the Constitutional Court pointed out that the Rules of Procedure had not defined the procedure of adoption by the Council of Ministers’ resolutions on approving or rejecting citizens’ and organisations’ petitions with the initiative to examine the constitutionality of the normative legal acts and the mechanism of the Council of Ministers right realisation to appeal to the Constitutional Court on its own initiative on the constitutionality of the normative legal acts.

Besides the Rules of Procedure had not defined the procedure for the Council of Ministers’ motions to the Constitutional Court on stating the Court’s position on the documents, adopted by foreign states, international organisations and (or) their bodies and affecting the interests of the Republic of Belarus, regarding conformity of these documents to the conventional principles and norms of international law. With a view to provide for the appropriate exercise of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and the organisations ant to observe the constitutional principle of legal definiteness the Constitutional Court recognised as necessary to make due alterations and addenda to the Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers aiming at the establishment of the procedure for forwarding motions by the Council of Ministers to the Constitutional Court.

On August 26, 2009 the Council of Ministers adopted the Resolution No. 1112 «On Making an Addendum to the Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus» which realised the Constitutional Court proposals.

According to this Resolution the Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus approved by the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 193 of February 14, 2009 was supplemented by the special chapter 81 «The Consideration Procedure by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus for motions to the Constitutional Court».

Therefore at the present time the Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers provide for the mechanism established by Article 22 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Judicial System and Status of Judges for the exercise of citizens’ and organisations’ right to appeal indirectly to the Constitutional Court with a motion to examine the constitutionality of an act as well as the mechanism of realisation of the Council of Ministers’ right according to Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 14 of June 26, 2008 to forward motions to the Constitutional Court on stating its position on the documents of foreign states, international organisations and (or) their bodies.