11 January 2007 № D-198/2007
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus, comprising of the Presiding Officer - Chairman of the Constitutional Court G.A. Vasilevich, Deputy Chairman A.V. Maryskin, judges T.S. Boiko, S.Y. Danilyuk, K.I. Kenik, V.V. Podgrusha, A.G. Tikovenko, R.I. Filipchik, V.Z. Shuklin, having considered the issue on constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus, guiding by Article 44 of the Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus" and Article 80 of Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court,
RULED:
1. To adopt the Message of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus to the President and to the Chambers of the Parliament of the Republic of Belarus "On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus, 2006" (text is enclosed).
2. To publish the Message "On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus, 2006" in newspapers "Zvayzda" and "Narodnaya gazeta" in ten days period of time from the date of adoption, as well as in National register of legal acts of the Republic of Belarus and in Bulletin "Vesnik Kanstytutsijnaga Suda Respubliki Belarus".
Presiding Officer —
Chairman of the Constitutional Court
of the
To President MESSAGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
of Republic of Belarus
A.G. Lukashenko
To House of Representatives
of National Assembly
of Republic of Belarus
To Council of Republic
of National Assembly
of Republic of Belarus
ON CONSTITUTIONAL LEGALITY IN REPUBLIC OF BELARUS, 2006
In 2006 successful development of the Republic of Belarus as a social democratic state ruled by law was continued. The absolute majority of the basic indices of forecast of social and economic development of the Republic of Belarus were fulfilled. Such significant political events as election of the President of the Republic of Belarus and III All-Belarusian people's assembly were held. All branches of power by realizing their powers as a whole strived to realize the principles and norms of Belarusian Constitution, the guarantor of which is the President of the Republic of Belarus. It has been carried on the improvement of the national legal system. In the course of the year there were adopted more than 100 laws, 22 decrees, more than 760 edicts of the President, more than 1,800 resolutions of the Government, about 2,000 departmental normative legal acts, about 120 resolutions of Board of directors of the National Bank, more than 700 acts of local representative, executive and administrative bodies of oblast level. Even a more considerable number of acts of the bodies of local government and self-government were adopted at the primary and basic levels. As for the number of effective normative legal acts, there are tens of thousands and that shall stipulate the higher demands to the level of norm creating and law applying activities. Owing to that it is very important to have systematic character of the legislation, its reasonable balancing, uniformity and accurate application in practice, control over its execution.
Process of updating of the national legislation and its development is the natural sign of demands of the times, new realities that assume more profound understanding of the essence of relations between the state and a human being.
Achievements in social and economic field are inseparably linked with the relevant legal regulation. If law and economy act not as antagonists but vice versa combine the methods of solution of the tasks, the development of society and the state shall be in dynamic. The peculiarity of Belarusian way of development is in the fact that we do not follow the law of "wild" (early) market but follow the market where decisions are taking not spontaneously but after careful consideration, with an allowance for combination of the interests of an individual and the society as a whole. Under those conditions the level of law creation may be and should be of the higher level.
The Constitution of Belarus as the Basic Law of the state shall have the wide economic constituent. It enshrines guarantees of the right of ownership, equality of its various forms, freedom of entrepreneurship, economic function of the state, protection of economic, social, cultural and other rights and freedoms. The Constitution combines ideas of socially oriented market economy, effective state regulation, fixes social traditions.
The national legislation shall be formed in accordance with the norms of the Constitution and international legal standards, including European standards. Both in economic sphere and in the sphere of law the influence of those standards is highly significant and, by following them, the Belarusian state will find its further development with the same dynamics and stability.
Law in any modern state is the main regulator of social relations. The status of the legal system as a whole shall make it possible to judge about the fact, how harmoniously the relations among the state, the society and an individual are developing. Each of these subjects has one's own interests and to find them and to secure their balance - the most important task. In this connection the Constitutional Court gives its support to the policy of the Head of the state, norm creating activities of the Parliament directed to making favourable conditions for the life and for the work of all Belarusian citizens. The state shall be created for the people and is called to serve for the people. In legal sphere decisions directed to debureaucratization of the administrative machinery shall make it possible for everyone to feel in reality that his/her rights and freedoms are, as it is stipulated in Article 2 of the Constitution, the supreme value and goal of the society and the state. Moreover, it is very important for the individual to realize the fairness of the legal rules. Even if they envisage new obligations and requirements, the realization of the fair legal regulation shall be increased under condition of preliminary explanation of the essence of alterations, establishment of transitional period, giving the citizen or the economic entity the possibility to prepare themselves for the new legal situation. Just such a norm creating practice shall promote forming the confidence of citizens in the state.
The past year the Constitutional Court has delivered more than 30 decisions adopted at its plenary sessions, has examined 2,148 applications of citizens, 13 petitions of deputies, 77 requests of the state bodies. Taking into account the collective applications, the total number of those who made their appeals to the Constitutional Court was more than six thousands of citizens. Judges of the Constitutional Court were active in labour collectives. All this gave the possibility to receive directly from the citizens the information on the problems in the legislation and in the practice of its application.
The Constitutional Court has stated its position as regards the most complicated legal problems that frequently remain without their settlement in other state bodies.
The Constitutional Court emphasizes that in 2006 a number of its proposals on improvement of the legislation, alteration of approaches in law creation and law application that it expressed previously in messages on constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus, in other decisions of the Constitutional Court had been realized in the acts of the current legislation. There have been considerably reduced the instances of giving the acts retrospective effect, when they vest the citizens and the economic entities with new obligations. The state bodies that adopt normative legal acts strive to carry out their official publication, to stipulate the transitional period within which the citizens and the economic entities may familiarize themselves with the adopted act, prepare for its execution before its coming into legal force. There have been taken other important steps in the sphere of improvement of norm creating and law application.
At the same time, the legislation has not yet become stable and system, it contains a lot of contradictions, unclear formulated provisions. Very often there is no prognosis of consequences of adoption of normative legal acts that shall not make it possible to achieve the expected results that are asserting in the process of initiating of the relevant drafts. Due to that the activities of certain law applying instances in many respects come to revision of previously delivered decisions on the grounds of former legislation. Concentration of the main efforts on this line results in the fact that it is given significantly less consideration for direct strengthening of legality.
Analysis of the materials available in the Constitutional Court signifies that great concern of citizens cause the condition and practice of application of the criminal law, the criminal law of procedure, the civil code and the civil code of procedure, administrative, housing, labour, pension tax and land legislation. The considerable number of issues is related to the specification of the circle of persons who are referring to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, to the participants of liquidation of disastrous effects at Chernobyl Nuclear Power station disaster, prisoners of fascist concentration camps; compensation for depreciation of deposits and bonds etc.
The Constitutional Court previously had repeatedly noted that for the successive formation of the Republic of Belarus as the state ruled by law it is very important for the acts of the current legislation to form up the based on the Constitution legal pyramid where there is the exclusion of contradictions and gaps. The legislation is still lacking in clearness as regards specification of the rights and obligations of citizens and legal persons, distinctness in determination of correlation of the legal force of the acts of one and different levels, as well as correlation of the legal force of the acts that are adopting by the same bodies, taking into account the time period of their adoption, the circle of persons that they shall cover. The Constitutional Court is reluctant to ascertain that it still remains the complexity and uncertainty of many of legal requirements, untimely making of the relevant alterations in the legislation, explanations of normative legal acts that contain conflicting norms, contradictoriness of the practice of application of the acts of the legislation.
Legal requirements and based on it decisions must be grounded on the principles of reasonableness and fairness, citizens and economic entities must be assured in stability of their status, in guaranteeing of the granted them rights and freedoms, as well as their protection; by restricting of the already acquired rights it should be taken into consideration the principles of fairness and proportionality of responsibility. Predictability and rational stability of normative regulation - an inalienable condition for the enhancement of confidence of citizens in the state. Lack of clarity and uncertainty of the provisions of legal acts shall both violate the rights and freedoms of citizens and is the "nutrient medium" for bureaucracy and other misuses.
The norm creating and law applying activities should be built in the specified directions, as well as in other principled directions of the development of the state as the democratic social state ruled by law. This will be the essential contribution to priming of economy, creative activity of citizens, support of their positive initiatives in different fields of public and social life.
Effective means for forming legal behaviour of citizens and guarantees of proper protection of their rights shall be timely and complete informing of citizens and legal persons about normative legal acts. By virtue of provisions of Articles 1, 7 and other Articles of the Constitution the state bodies shall be bound by the Constitution to publish and to promulgate the normative legal acts by some other means specified in the law. The given obligation of the state shall correspond to the enshrined in Article 34 of the Constitution right of citizens to receive complete, reliable and timely information about the activities of the state bodies. If with respect to the normative legal acts this task was successfully solved, then the problem of promulgation of technical normative legal acts remains to be urgent. The Constitutional Court deems that for the proper securing of the constitutional provisions the citizens and legal entities before the enforcement of technical regulations, state standards of the Republic of Belarus, veterinary and sanitary norms and rules, sanitary norms, rules and hygienic norms, norms and rules of fire safety, as well as similar acts must have the possibility to familiarize themselves in good time with their content. The Constitutional Court in its Decision of 4 October 2006 noted that it is necessary to secure the unique and all-round approach towards stipulation of the procedure of adoption, coming into legal force, publication or informing of citizens and legal persons about technical normative legal acts. This is especially important so far as the failure of their execution shall involve administrative, criminal and other liability.
While examining the issue about the use of the acquired by the citizens tickets, the Constitutional Court in its Decision of 12 January 2006 ruled that by virtue of provisions of the Civil Code and the Law "On protection of rights of consumers" a citizen who bought tickets for trips in city public transport before alteration of rates, in case of alteration of conditions of realization of the treaty shall have the right to return the beforehand payment for transportation services. The use of the ticket for one trip in bus, tram, trolleybus is not limited by the calendar time periods and therefore, the tickets may remain unused over a long period of time. Minsk city executive committee in its Decision of 20 July 2006 No. 1455 has realized the proposal on entering of the nominal value of tickets for one trip of previous standard in case of buying the tickets at new rates during the whole period of their effect. In its decision the Constitutional Court has also paid attention to binding publication of normative legal acts before they come into legal force.
The Constitution guarantees the right to labour (Article 41) which may be realized by way of conclusion of labour agreements, including the contracts. Sub-item 2.5 of point 2 of Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 26 July 1999 No. 29 "On additional measures on improvement of labour relations, strengthening of labour and executive discipline" stipulates that the contract concluded with the worker should specify additional measures for stimulation of labour (granting additional encouraging leave with preservation of wages up to five calendar days, rise of the tariff rate). The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus in its Resolution of 25 September 1999 No. 1476 also specifies that the contract must fix the concrete minimum compensation for worsening the legal situation of a worker. It takes place the instances where the organizations that are budgeting and that are using the government support in case of moving a worker to the contract form of employment, there is no security of realization of provisions of sub-item 2.5 of point 2 of the Decree in question. In this connection, the Constitutional Court in its Decision of 16 November 2006 has made to the Council of Ministers the proposal on the necessity of consideration of the issue or on the real guaranteeing for the workers of organizations that are budgeting and that are using the government subsidies, execution of the relevant provisions of the given Decree and the specified Resolution of the Council of Ministers or stipulation in the legislation of the wording according to which granting of the measure in question will be subject to determination in agreement of bodies taking into account the financial possibilities of the organization. At present the given measure must be stipulated in the contract as an obligatory condition. In practice this is confirmed by the circumstance that the bodies which carry out control over the observance of the labour legislation penalize the officials of the economic entities in case of absence in the contract of additional measures for stimulation of labour of workers.
The Constitutional Court in its decisions referred repeatedly to the issues of protection of the rights of citizens as regards payment and taxation of service benefits. Between the tax and the labour law there is the long-lasting contradiction as regards the gratuity that is liable to income tax. This contradiction comes to the fact that the gratuity, the ground for which and the size of which are fixed in the law, shall be subject to no income tax, but as for the gratuity under the collective agreement - shall be subject to taxation. On the basis of the provisions of the Labour Code as the normative legal act of higher legal force, the position of the Constitutional Court comes to the fact that the gratuity shall not be subject to income tax regardless of its payment in accordance with the law or under the collective agreement. In the opinion of the Constitutional Court, the Parliament on the grounds of its powers and taking into account the solution of the given issue in the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 5 May 2006 No. 295 may remove from the remaining collision between the laws (between the Labour Code and the Law "On income tax from natural persons").
The conflict nature of the legislation was also revealed by the Constitutional Court while examining the procedure and conditions of pension security of stewards/stewardesses. In Judgment of 29 March 2006 it was emphasized that the Air Code and the pension legislation contained over a long period the multiple approaches to the use of the terms and notions. Timely bringing of the legislation into the condition of consistency, removal from internal contradictoriness could lift the problem to the full long before the emerging of the conflict.
The Constitutional Court deems it necessary to clarify the content of legal regulation of relations as regards inheritance in Belarus of the plots of land by the citizens of Russia and practice of its application. In its Decision of 9 January 2006 the Constitutional Court paid attention to the fact that under the Constitution foreign citizens in Belarus shall enjoy the rights and freedoms and perform the duties equally with the citizens of the Republic of Belarus. Moreover, proceeding from the priority of the principles and norms of international law, provisions of the Treaty of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation on equal rights of citizens, the citizens of Russia, as the citizens of Belarus shall have the right of inheritance of the plots of land located in the territory of the Republic of Belarus in pursuance of the provisions of Article 161 of the Land Code of the Republic of Belarus.
As it was found in Decision of the Constitutional Court of 26 January 2006, Minsk city executive committee within the scope of its powers shall take decisions about preliminary co-ordination of the location of the object of building and permission for carrying out designing and procuring works, about allocation of a plot of land and permission for building an object. In addition, the treaties on the right to designing and building of the objects stipulate the rights and obligations of parties, including the obligation of the person having built his/her (its) own house with share holding in development of branches of city economy. Persons having built his/her (its) own house may take part in development of these objects by themselves. Attraction of funds of enterprises and organizations for share holding in the development of city systems and structures shall not be referred to the category of local dues. Therefore, in the opinion of the Constitutional Court, collection of funds for share holding in the development of branches of city economy of the city of Minsk may be exercised only with the consent of the owner of the funds.
Shortcomings of legal regulation that are manifesting in introduction of additional restrictive orders which are not based on the law were pointed out in legal position of the Constitutional Court stated in its Decision of 9 February 2006. The subject to examination was Instruction of the Ministry of Justice on the procedure of issue of the certificate of realtor. The Instruction introduced an additional restriction for receiving the certificate of realtor due to commission by a person of a mercenary crime and that is not stipulated by Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 9 January 2006 No. 15 and by Provision on licensing of activities on legal aid approved by Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of 20 October 2003 No. 1363. The Ministry of Justice was proposed to consider the issue on bringing point 4 of the given Instruction in part of limitation of the right of citizens to deal with activities on realtor's services due to commission by them of mercenary crimes the previous convictions for which were expunged or cancelled under the legally prescribed procedure and in accordance with the normative legal acts of more higher legal force. Refusal in dealing with realtor's activities, in the opinion of the Constitutional Court, may be stipulated by other reasons.
As a result of the tasks set in 2006 as regards optimization of relations between an individual and the state bodies (tax, law enforcement and other) the clearness and sufficient definiteness in regulation of the issues of payment of republican and local taxes shall take on special significance and the Constitutional Court paid attention to this in its Judgment of 21 September 2006. The state bodies by setting the taxes must adhere to the practice of stipulation in the legislative acts of the basic elements of taxation (payers, object of taxation, tax base, tax period, tax rate (rates), procedure of calculation, procedure and time limits for payment). This requirement follows directly from the provision of Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 3 November 2005 No. 520 where the legal position of the Constitutional Court on the given issue found its confirmation. Realization of this position by the legislator in each case shall secure for the tax payers the predictability of their legal status that is the decisive constituent in implementation of the tax legislation. For norm creating bodies (first of all, for the Parliament and for the Government) it is also necessary to abide by the strict rules of delegation of powers to the issue of the regulating norms with an allowance for the scope of competences of the state bodies. In the opinion of the Constitutional Court, the wordings of the norms of laws must not allow the practice of overdelegation of powers in the tax sphere. The given Judgment also underlined that in the instance of delegation by the Parliament or by the Government of the powers to other bodies on the issues that involve the rights, freedoms and duties of citizens it shall be expedient to determine the limits of such regulation in by-laws. This shall make it possible to exclude the cases of adoption of decisions that do not to the full meet the aims of the legislative regulation.
Guarantees of the lawful rights of citizens were not specified adequately while vesting individual entrepreneurs with the powers on calculation, deduction and transferring to the budget the due for parking where the payers of the due in question are the consumers of the parking places. The Constitutional Court in its Decision of 5 July 2006 has pointed out the groundlessness and unlawfulness of vesting individual entrepreneurs with those functions, since they are not in line with the General Part of the Tax Code on the participants of the given tax relations. The right to perform this function shall have the state bodies or this function may be entrusted with organizations, and not with individual entrepreneurs. Taking into account the position of the Constitutional Court, the given legal problem found its solution in Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 3 October 2006 No. 589 "On regulation of operation of automobile parking places" by way of specification of the object that is subject to taxation by the due for parking in specially equipped places.
For the law applying practice, for the protection of the interests of the economic entities, enhancing of confidence in the state and in the bodies that are called to solve the emerging disputes, it would be useful to stipulate additional guarantees of protection of the rights of bona fide acquirers who bought goods the customs regulation of which prevented from making with it transactions in the internal turnover or goods moved through the customs border of the Republic of Belarus with violation of the customs legislation, and the purchaser could not know about that during the act of transacting. As a rule, the goods in question are exposing in the course of controlling inspections. There were instances when goods were bought at bids organized by the courts. In addition, guilty persons shall not be identified by the customs bodies, and the protocols on administrative customs offences are making in respect to the non-identified persons. Judicial practice comes to realization of these goods into the property of the state in spite of the fact that the acquirer - the owner of the goods in question knew nothing about the limitations and could not know about these limitations.
According to the opinion of the Constitutional Court, for the purposes of additional protection of the rights of bona fide acquirers there should be taken the legal measures directed to the improvement of both the customs and administrative legislation, as well as the practice of their application, including the right of the acquirer to receive from the customs bodies complete and reliable information about the goods that are the subject of transaction. There is the need of analysis and evaluation of proportionality of sanctions to the gravity of the committed administrative offence, as well as the expediency of confiscation of goods in cases when it may entail unfavourable outcome for normal activities of an economic entity. The outlined positive tendency of better co-ordination of the measure of responsibility with the gravity of an offence shall be advisably followed up. There is also the need of improvement of the procedure of administrative proceedings, especially when taking into account the fact that the sanctions for the administrative offences very often are higher than the sanctions for the criminal offences.
There is no regular and proper ensuring of the rights of citizens while settling the issues of privatization of living accommodation, including in instances of preferential privatization of living accommodation under the international agreements. The Constitutional Court in its Decision of 26 January 2006 noted that in accordance with the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the Ukraine on joint actions on minimization and overcoming of after-effects of Chernobyl disaster of 12 May 1997 the citizens of the Ukraine who are suffered from Chernobyl disaster in case of their removal to the permanent living in the territory of the Republic of Belarus shall enjoy the privileges stipulated in the Law "On social protection of citizens who suffered from the disaster at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station". In this connection the Council of Ministers was proposed to form the practice of application of the legislation on privatization of the housing resources in the Republic of Belarus in accordance with the given Agreement.
By determining its position on the issue of reimbursement by the insurer for the damage caused to the injured party under the contract of obligatory insurance of the civil liability of the owners of means of transportation, the Constitutional Court in its Decision of 23 June 2006 has come to the conclusion that since the given type of obligatory insurance is subject to regulation by special legislative acts, then in case of consideration of the issue on compensation for the damage to the injured party, the norms to be guided should be the norms of these acts that have priority over the general norms of the civil legislation.
Having studied certain aspects of referring the veterans to the participants of the Great Patriotic War and to the persons who took part in local wars and military conflicts, the Constitutional Court in its Decision of 9 November 2006 specified that the Law "On veterans" stipulates in detail the criteria of referring persons to the veterans of battles in the territories of other states. As regards the referring of certain categories of persons to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the Constitutional Court deems that for the strengthening of non-contradictory practice of law application it could be given the official interpretation by the Parliament of the relevant norm of the Law "On veterans" or to make in the given law the alterations that would secure the adequacy of the practice for the legislation.
The Constitutional Court receives the applications of local executive and administrative bodies, as well as of the citizens related to the housing legislation, in particular, the Housing Code and Model regulations of a housing and building co-operative (HBC).
Decision of 28 December 2006 "On improvement of provisions of Model regulations of a housing and building co-operative" pointed out the imperfection of the norms of the housing legislation concerning institution and activities of HBC, as well as having control over the activities of HBC by the local executive and administrative bodies, the contradictions that makes it difficult to use it in practice. In a number of instances this fact shall exclude the possibility of proper exercise by HBC of their functions and, consequently, shall not secure to the full the protection of housing rights and lawful interests of members of HBC, owners of living accommodation in the houses of HBC, as well as the state interests.
The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus was proposed before the adoption of the new Housing Code to make the relevant alterations and addenda into the Model regulations of a housing and building co-operative with an allowance for the norms of the effective housing legislation, the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus, the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On joint house and grounds" and other acts of legislation with the purpose of removal of legal obstacles for proper carrying out of the activities of HBC, in particular, and that shall make it possible for HBC in case of necessity to adopt decisions not only at the general meeting but also in a different way, for example, by way of taking into account of the received in written form applications of its members, as it is stipulated by part five of Article 17 of the Law "On joint house and grounds".
Many of applications of citizens to the Constitutional Court in 2006 open the issues of shortcomings of realization of laws while administering justice, especially in cassation and supervisory instances. In their applications, including during the personal reception in the Constitutional Court, the citizens give the facts of violations while delivering judicial rulings.
Therefore, the Constitutional Court considers it necessary to strengthen the supervision of the legality of the delivered judicial rulings, to secure the strict observance of the Constitution, the current procedural and material legislation, to authorize the Prosecutor-General with the right to make the constitutional motions to the Constitutional Court in instances, where the protest he/she made in respect to the normative legal acts is not satisfied by the relevant state body.
Strict execution of Article 112 of the Constitution with granting all the courts the right to make direct requests to the Constitutional Court on verification of the constitutionality of the act, which is subject to application in the concrete case, could strengthen the constitutional guarantees of protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens. The last request of the courts of common law to the Constitutional Court took place ten years ago. This practice comes to the fact that the lawful solution of legal conflicts is delaying for years, as well as gives rise for the citizens to resort to multiple walking and visiting different instances who very often have reasons to disagree with the delivered rulings.
For example, until now there is still open the question on inheritance of flats in HBC the members of which had paid in full the shares before 1 May 1994, but due to various reasons (for instance, as a result of death) could not manage to register them as the ownership. According to the effective legislation before 1 May 1994 those persons became the owners and, consequently, their right to inherit the flats had next of kin and other persons to whom they were devised. Just this position was expressed by the Constitutional Court as a result of the request of the deputy of the House of Representatives. As for the practice, it has taken the way of granting those flats the outsiders and payment for the heirs of the sums of shares that are absolutely incommensurable with the cost of the flat.
There are plenty of examples where just the state should be interested in correct and fair settlement of a legal dispute. Observance of inherent to the state ruled by law principles of development of legislation (adoption of normative legal acts, their alteration, practice of application) shall have its positive effect on the whole system of relations. At the same time, failure to observe them may be negative for the psychology of a human being, and the psychological state in its turn involves the consequences such as occupational injuries, increase of a number of road accidents etc.
Guarantees of the rights and freedoms of citizens that are enshrined in the Constitution and in the laws in the state for the people shall take on a specific significance. Rigorous effecting of the normative requirements is gradually becoming the natural norm of behaviour of the majority of citizens and economic entities. Adherence of the state to the execution of the constitutional norms is observed in the practice of carrying out of decisions of the Constitutional Court. At the same time, there is the proper implementation of the constitutional principles and norms into the public practice. It should be noted that in 2006 there were executed 18 decisions of the Constitutional Court, including 14 decisions adopted in previous years. A number of them found its support by the Head of the state. Thus, in Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 17 March 2006 No. 153 there have been realized the proposal of the Constitutional Court stated in its Decision of 1 March 2005. The Decree stipulated that the payment for the technical maintenance of living accommodation and for the use of them, for the communal services that are rendered for the population, payment for the extensive repairs of dwelling houses shall be made on or before the 25th day of the next month after the month of calculation.
Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 14 February 2006 No. 95 has taken into response the proposal of the Constitutional Court of 21 October 2005 on the issue of unification of the payment of children's allowances for the employed and unemployed women. As a result of the proposal of the Constitutional Court, the employed and unemployed women on the basis of the principle of equality of citizens of the Republic of Belarus there have been secured the right to the state social insurance regardless of the social status and occupation. At present the children's allowances shall be paid to them in equal rates.
Article 8 of the Law "On budget of the Republic of Belarus for 2006" has realized Decisions of the Constitutional Court of 12 July 2005 and of 26 August 2005 as regards specification on the level of the law of the basic elements of taxation. In view of consistency of the budget and financial and tax policy of the Republic of Belarus with the provisions of Article 132 of the Constitution, the law maker has stipulated in the law on budget the measures on limitation of the rates of the local dues.
Its confirmation in Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 5 May 2006 No. 295 found the position of the Constitutional Court stated in Decisions of 1 February 2001 and of 3 January 2006 about the fact that the income earned by the natural persons as the social benefits as a result of retirement on a pension paid in accordance with and on the conditions stipulated by the collective agreement.
A number of proposals of the Constitutional Court on the improvement of the legislation was included in the drafts of legislative acts that are under consideration in the authorized state bodies.
The situation with execution of decisions of the Constitutional Court shall make it possible to come to the conclusion that as a whole the state bodies take the adequate measures on removal from the revealed by the Constitutional Court deficiency of the legislation. The Constitutional Court counts that other previously expresses by it proposals will be realized in practice.
The Constitutional Court is bound to note that its legal position regarding the relevant issues of legal regulation, concerning the shortcomings in judicial and in other law applying practice very often at first arouse negative reaction, and then, after the expiration of several months or even years, is acknowledging or realizing in the legislation. This signifies that certain officials very often on the strength of departmental interests do not wish, and sometimes are not able to change the style of their thinking, to look into a complicated legal situation and to encourage promptly the settlement of the conflict by standing on the already developed approaches and stereotypes. Such a practice shall not promote the confidence of citizens in the state.
The Constitutional Court shares to the full the requirements of the Head of the state on turn to the needs of people, their rights and duties.
For the strengthening of the constitutional legality it is also important legal education of wide sections of the population. For that reason, the Constitutional Court deems it justifiable the wide-spreading of the forms of free legal aid for the population, especially at the local level, including by means of mass media. Mass publication by the state of inexpensive legal reference books for the population will assist the realization of this task.
Society understands always positively the situation when the state institutes and officials hold on the principle of equality of all before the law and the court. Strengthening of this constitutional principle in the consciousness of officials of the state bodies also in practice shall both finds its support of the whole of the society and has the most positive influence on formation of the legal system of the modern state.
It is necessary to adjust the work of the state apparatus for the improvement of the constitutional legality. Development of legal regulation of daily relations of the state with the citizens was approved by III All-Belarusian people's assembly which passed the programme requirements for the progress of legal reality of Belarus in the near future. Every mean should be used for the achievement of the situation in the Republic of Belarus under which for each citizen it is evident that the state bodies are bound by their decisions. In this connection greater significance shall acquire the activities of the officials of the state bodies and local self-government on the basis of genuine respect for law as a universal remedy for the prevention and settlement of different disputes. Each official must consider law as the value, social welfare that secure stability and progress of the society and the state. Solution of disputable issues by legal instruments shall be the most advantageous for the society. Furthermore, security of the supremacy of the Constitution, direct effect of its norms still remain the most important indices of stability of the constitutional system.
The Constitutional Court deems that for the strengthening of the constitutional legality, for the sizable reduction of the number of complaints and other addresses that annually incoming the state bodies it may be conducive to reinforce control over the observance of the effective legislation, including on the part of collective representative bodies - the Parliament, as well as the local Councils of deputies the renewal of which will take place at the elections of 14 January 2007. Analysis of the subject-matter of the meetings of local representative, executive and administrative bodies unfortunately signifies that the issue of execution of branch legislation are not very often put on the agenda. Situation, in the opinion of the Constitutional Court, should be changed for the better.
Power of the Belarusian state - in fairness. The Constitution enshrines the fundamental positions for securing harmony in society. Constitutional culture is necessary both for the society and for the state. Legality shall promote effective interaction of public forces for the sake of the progress of the whole society.
The Present Message was adopted at the session of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 11 January 2007.
Presiding Officer —
Chairman of the Constitutional Court
of the