The Message of the Constitutional Court is adopted on the basis of materials and cases considered in 2012.

1. In 2012 in the exercise of obligatory preliminary review the Constitutional Court examined 113 laws, adopted by the House of Representatives and approved by the Council of the Republic before they were signed by the President of the Republic of Belarus. All of the reviewed laws were recognised to be conforming to the Constitution. However, on the basis of the constitutional provisions the Constitutional Court has formulated in its decisions more than 20 legal positions aiming to clarify the constitutional and legal meaning of particular rules and to elaborate effective legislative mechanism of implementation and protection of rights and freedoms of an individual and a citizen.

2. 772 applications of citizens and organisations had been submitted to the Constitutional Court. Constitutional Court in view of some applications took decisions aimed to fill legal gaps, eliminate conflict of law and legal uncertainty. Thus, decisions pointed out the necessity:

to fill the constitutional and legal gap in the legal regulation by fixing the right of graduates of higher level and other educational institutions to be exempted from the reimbursement of funds spent by the State for their training, if they volunteer for military service on contract basis;

to rule out legal uncertainty in regulation of relations in the sphere of protecting property interest of creditor, who’s monetary funds were unlawfully used by the debtor;

to eliminate conflict of rules in the procedure and amount of reimbursement of travel expenses in business trips to employees; etc.

3. The Constitutional Court points out that state bodies consecutively execute its decisions by adopting new legal normative acts, as well as by introducing necessary alterations and addenda to the existing acts of legislation. In the course of the past year 13 decisions of the Constitutional Court were implemented. Their legal positions were taken into account by the legislator in the following acts:

the Housing Code, adopted on the August 28, 2012, stipulated rights of citizens of the Republic of Belarus, as well as residents abroad, to purchase flats (houses) under purchase-sale contract in any community in Belarus regardless of the place of permanent residence; provided for legal regulation of the procedure of short-term rent of home accommodations on systematic basis by citizens;

the Law “On Pension Provision” envisages a longer term for power of attorney to receive monetary funds from the bank account of a citizen to which his pension is transferred;

the Law “On Economic Insolvency (Bankruptcy)” regulated issues of the preference in pay of expenses that emerge in the process of liquidation of a debtor and that are directly bound to him;

and other legal normative acts.

4. In assessing constitutional legality in 2012 the Constitutional Court had established that constitutional principles and rules were not breached in the law-making process. At the same time legal mechanisms that ensure full implementation of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens in all spheres of life activity of the society and the State were developing.

Rights and freedoms of individual, being the main guideline in the life activity of the society, are acting as its basis. That stipulates the necessity to improve the level of social legal awareness, to foster constitutional culture, to constitutionalise social relations.

In the view of the foregoing the Constitutional Court deems that not only state bodies and officials – who are responsible for the constitutional legal order – should contribute to the strengthening of constitutional legality, but also citizens, organisations, institutions of civil society. That will ensure the supremacy of law in all spheres of the life of society and the State, consecutive development and strengthening of the Republic of Belarus as a democratic, social and rule-of-law State.