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, G.A. Vorobei, K.I. Kenik, V.V. Podgrusha, A.A. Sarkisova, R.I. Filipchik, V.Z. Shuklin, has 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 Message of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus to the President and the Chambers of the Parliament of the Republic of Belarus "On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus, 2003" (text is enclosed).

2. To publish the Message "On constitutional legality in the Republic of Belarus, 2003" 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 Republic of Belarus                                                                                               G.A. Vasilevich

To President

of Republic of Belarus

To House of Representatives

of National Assembly

of Republic of Belarus

To Council of Republic

of National Assembly

of Republic of Belarus 

MESSAGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

ON CONSTITUTIONAL LEGALITY IN REPUBLIC OF BELARUS, 2003

     The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus shall be the ground for the development of a democratic, social State ruled by law, forming the national legal system, building relations of new quality between an individual, society and the State, organization of economic, political, social and cultural life, on the basis of the Constitution there were created new bodies of State power. The Constitution of Belarus shall be political and legal basis for forming and development of social and legal State organization, the main factor of law making and law applying processes. During ten years of the effect of the Constitution on the basis thereof and according thereto there have been created the wide legislative base for economic, political and social transformations, securing the rights and freedoms of citizens, guarantees of their realization, formed new legal system reflecting present-day achievements of European legal culture.

     The Constitutional Court, which has been set up in 1994 on the basis of the new Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, in its activities promoted constantly the forming of a democratic social State ruled by law and, first of all, the protection of the rights, freedoms and lawful interests of an individual and a citizen.

     By giving estimation of its ten years way of formation, development and strengthening the constitutional justice in the Republic of Belarus, the Constitutional Court emphasizes that the constitutional justice has become the reality, one of the component parts of the constitutional principles of Belarusian State organization. Decisions of the Constitutional Court have been the contribution to strengthening the constitutional system, realization of human rights and freedoms, as well as the real factor of improvement of legal system, forming of feeling for law and order, legal ideology.

     Legal system of the Republic of Belarus as a whole finds its successful development on the basis and within the frames of the effective Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and in accordance with universally acknowledged principles and norms of international law. However, the Constitutional Court has pointed out for several times in its Messages the shortcomings of legal regulation as gaps, collisions and deviation from the principle of supremacy of the Constitution. By estimating in a number of its Decisions the constitutionality of the norms of substantive law, the Constitutional Court has also paid attention to imperfection of the norms of procedural law. The absence of the mechanism of realization of the norms of substantive law has often given rise not to comply by the officials with the requirements of the Constitution, the norms of which shall have direct effect. Due to that, more full specification in the legislation of the procedures for realization of the rights and freedoms of citizens may contribute to strengthening constitutional legality and may be useful for certain officials to understand the necessity of strict observance of the requirements of the Constitution as the Basic Law of the State.

     The Constitutional Court has taken direct and active part in the development and improvement of the system of law as a whole and its specific branches. In its Decisions the Constitutional Court has established the general and special principles of law - the supremacy and direct effect of the constitutional norms stipulating the human rights (in particular, right of everyone to judicial protection, to legal aid). Legal position of the Constitutional Court as regards the constitutional equality of citizens and forms of ownership, accessibility of justice for the citizens, principle of non-giving the retrospective effect to the enforceable enactments, except for those which mitigate or annual the liability of the citizens shall be the important components in the development of legal culture of Belarus.

     While delivering its Decisions, the Constitutional Court on the basis of the norms of the Constitution, has been strived to both understanding genuine content of the constitutional norms and principles and their direct effect and guiding by fairness, reasonableness, proportionality, balance, pursuing the line that the State, its bodies shall bare responsibility towards the citizens, and the citizens shall be held responsible towards the State for the exercising their obligations (Articles 2, 59 and other Articles of the Constitution).

     One of the most important landmarks in the activities of the Constitutional Court shall be complaints of citizens which open the issues concerning the constitutional legality.

     In 2003 the Constitutional Court has received 1,638 written complaints from the citizens, public associations and other legal persons. Taking into account the individual and collective complaints of citizens, the total number of those who made their appeals to the Constitutional Court was 12,266 persons. The Constitutional Court emphasizes that the complaints of citizens have involved the issues of the criminal law and the criminal law of procedure (12,8%), were related to the complaints against judicial decisions and actions of the officials of various State bodies (23,8%), as well as concerned social protection of the population (7%), securing economic, social, cultural rights and freedoms (10,3%), housing law relations (5,5%), explanations of legal nature (11,2%) etc.

     While considering each of the complaints the Constitutional Court has been guided by the Constitution, international legal acts, Laws "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus", "On complaints of citizens", by other enforceable enactments and proceeded from the correlation of the legislative acts, terms of their adoption, social significance and the issues raised, as well as estimation of social consequences of application of legal requirements. The main directions in the activities of the Constitutional Court were securing the rights and freedoms of citizens, as well as realization of the fundamental principles of the social State ruled by law, that found its reflection in 36 Decisions, adopted in 2003.

     Proclamation of the Republic of Belarus as a social State shall presume on the basis of the nature of such a State the protection of the most vulnerable classes of the population against unfavourable influence of the market on the one hand, and on another hand - encouragement of the development of economic activity of the citizens, the overcoming parasitic sentiments in social sphere.

     For the significant part of the population of the Republic of Belarus the activities of the State in the field of securing social rights of the citizens shall take special importance.

     Decision of the Constitutional Court of 31 October 2003 is dedicated to the protection of one of the most important social rights - the right to education. Having studied the normative requirements of the Ministry of Education as regards the methods of conversion into new grading system of the marks put down previously in the certificate about the secondary education while admitting to the higher educational institutions of the Republic of Belarus, the Constitutional Court, guiding by the principles of equality of the rights of citizens, has come to the conclusion that the applying scheme of the conversion into the new marks shall be resulted in advantage of the certificates of 5 levels system in relation to 10 levels system and that causes unequal competition among the university entrants, as well as proposed the Ministry of Education to regulate the given relations in the sphere of education in the proper enforceable enactment.

     On the grounds of the constitutional principle of accessibility of specialized secondary and higher education for all in accordance with the abilities of everyone, taking into account the right of citizens to receive complete and timely information the Constitutional Court in its Decision of 9 October 2003 has proposed the Ministry of Education to fix in good time in yearly approving rules of intake to educational institutions the terms and the procedure of specification of planned figures of intake of the university entrants to be educated with financing out of budgetary funds and means of the natural and legal persons.

     Guiding by the principles of equality of all before the law and equal protection of the rights and lawful interests, for the purposes of realization of the right of citizens to pension security, the Constitutional Court has adopted of 21 November 2003 its Decision "On payment of pension for an individual entrepreneur". The Constitutional Court underlined that according to part one of Article 83 of the Law "On pension security" a part of the pension calculated given the wage of higher than 130 per cent of average earnings of workers and employees in the Republic which is using for the adjustment of the factual income of the pensioner (Articles 56 and 70), shall not be paid during the period of work or dealing with entrepreneur activities. The specified rule has been applied in practice irrespective of the fact, whether the entrepreneur activities took place in fact after obtaining the status of the individual entrepreneur, regardless of the fact that the Law "On pension security" shall envisage just dealing with entrepreneur activities as the condition for restriction of the scale of the pension which is subject to be paid.

     The Constitutional Court has come to the conclusion on imperfection of the norms of law and proposed the Government to remove from the legal gap in the legislation by which it would be excluded the formal interpretation of limitations and presentation of unsound material requirements with respect to the pensioners on behalf of the State. Bodies of the executive have been given the relevant explanations aimed at realization of the specified Decision of the Constitutional Court.

     The principles of the social State have also found its expression in Decision of the Constitutional Court of 31 October 2003 concerning the issue of protection of the rights of invalids, ensuring their equality and participation in the life of the society enjoying full rights. Having examined the issues of granting the invalids of the plots of land for the location of garages, the Constitutional Court has paid attention of the Council of Ministers to the necessity of removal from the contradictions in the land legislation and in the special enforceable enactment on social protection of invalids. In particular, according to the Land Code of 1999 the invalids with the violation of loco-motor organs shall have no right to receive the plot of land for the temporary use and, therefore, to built the garage close by the place of the residence, if they do not fall within the category of citizens listed in part two of Article 74 of the Code in question. At the same time, due to the requirements of the Law "On social protection of invalids in the Republic of Belarus" this right has been given for the invalids. The Constitutional Court has proposed the Government to take the measures on elimination of this collision and to secure the fairness as regards the protection of the rights of invalids.

     The Constitutional Court has also pointed out the deficiency of legal requirements on providing by the State of the protection for the citizens who took part in operations on minesweeping during the post-war period. Guiding by the constitutional principle of equality of all before the law, as well as proceeding from the necessity of unification of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, the Constitutional Court in its Decision of 24 April 2003 has proposed the Council of Ministers to submit by way of the legislative initiative the proposal on making the relevant addenda to the Law "On veterans" for the purposes of removal from the contradictions in the legislation.

     One of the basic social rights in the Republic of Belarus shall be the right to health protection and accessibility of medical health care facilities. Provision of the medical services of high quality for the population shall be carried out taking into account the requirements of Article 45 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to health care, including free treatment at public health care establishments and making health care facilities accessible to all of the citizens.

     For the realization of the specified constitutional right of the citizens there have been directed Judgment of the Constitutional Court of 26 May 2003 "On the conformity to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of Article 5 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On public health protection", of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of 27 August 1996 No. 566 "On paid types of medical aid and services rendered in official State bodies of public health protection", Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of 28 June 2002 No. 871 "On approval of Provision on the procedure of rendering of paid medical services in State organizations of public health protection" adopted in response to the constitutional motion of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly. The Constitutional Court in its Judgment has pointed out that forming and application of the State minimum social standards should be carried out on the grounds of the principles of observing the constitutional rights of citizens in the field of social guarantees; all-round validity of their establishment and application taking into account the economic possibilities of the State; general availability, their purpose and address financing; being kept well-informed through the mass media about the social standards in question. The Constitutional Court emphasizes that even before the delivery of the specified Judgment the Council of Ministers has adopted its Resolution of 25 April 2003 No. 556 in which the list of paid medical care facilities was cut down significantly.

     Decision of the Constitutional Court of 23 January 2003 concerning property taxation obtained under the contract of life-long care with support has been directed to the protection of single and old persons, as well as to realization of the principle of fairness in tax law relations. This Decision has indicated that the civil legislation shall envisage the possibility of application to the relations of the parties, under the gratuitous rent contract as regards the transfer of the property, of the rule of endowment (Article 556 of CC). In accordance with the tax legislation the endowment incomes shall be subject to exemption from income tax in full or partly (sub-item 1.14 of point 1 of Article 3 of the Law "On income tax from natural persons"). Simultaneously the tax legislation has left it open the issue on the procedure of taxation of the property obtained for the rent payment. As a result in practice as regards free rent contracts the income shall be subject to taxation as the whole property obtained by the rent payer, and as for the person who is endowing while obtaining the same property he/she shall be granted a significant privilege.

     The Constitutional Court, taking into account the essence of the rent relations, has considered to be contradictory the position of the law maker and the practice of application of the provisions of the Law "On income tax from natural persons" in part of taxation of the property obtained under the rent payment according to the contract of life-long care with support and come to the conclusion on the necessity of exclusion of the instances of income taxation of real property which is passing under the contract of life-long care with support into the ownership of the rent payer free of charge, and the necessity of making relevant alterations and addends into the tax legislation.

     With respect to the given Decision there have been elaborated the draft law on making alterations and addenda into the Law "On income tax from natural persons" which finds the legal position of the Constitutional Court as for the issue in question.

     Due to the incoming applications the Constitutional Court received in 2003, just like the previous years, on the grounds of part one of Article 116, part four of Article 122, Article 137 of the Constitution has also verified the constitutionality of the enforceable enactments of local Councils of deputies, executive and administrative bodies.

     By adopting its Decisions on the given issues, the Constitutional Court has established the principle of constitutionality (legality), protected the constitutional human rights and freedoms, rights and liberties of citizens, as well as the interests of the State.

     In its Decisions of 14 February 2003, of 3 November 2003 and of 16 December 2003 the Constitutional Court has found that the local Councils of deputies have realized their exclusive right to set the local dues in accordance with the provisions of Article 10 of the Law "On budget of the Republic of Belarus for 2003". The specified conclusion related to Decision of Pinsk city Council of deputies of 27 December 2001 No. 104 in part of setting of the local due from the users of the infrastructure of the city; to Decision of Novopolotsk city Council of deputies of 27 December 2001 No. 56 in part of setting of the local due for the right to trade and to Decision of Mogilov city Council of deputies of 24 December 2002 No. 23-2 on setting of the local due for the services in part of setting of the same due concerning the services on guarding the flats and installation of gurading signalization.

     By verifying the constitutionality of Decision of Novopolotsk city Council of deputies of 28 June 2002 No. 83 "On setting of local dues and on approval of the provisions on the procedure of calculation and payment of local dues imposed for 2002", the Constitutional Court found no legal grounds for referring the local due for the right to delivery of hydrocarbon raw materials for industry processing under supply giving conditions to the dues from the user or to the dues for the services, as well as to non of the types of taxes and dues, where the right set to them has been given the local Councils of deputies by point 1 of Article 10 of the Law "On budget of the Republic of Belarus for 2002", and found certain norms of Decision of Novopolotsk city Council of deputies of 28 June 2002 No. 83, which had set the due in question and approved the Provision thereon, to be at variance with Article 121 of the Constitution and Article 10 of the Law "On budget of the Republic of Belarus for 2002".

     Novopolotsk city Council of deputies by its Decision of 25 June 2003 No. 19 has executed Decision of the Constitutional Court by repealing the local due for the right to delivery of hydrocarbon raw materials for industry processing under supply giving conditions. The payers of the due in questions have been returned from the local budget (in other due budget payments) the money resources in sum of 652 m. of roubles.

     The Constitutional Court in its Decision of 14 February 2003 having found the right of Pinsk city Council of deputies to set the local due from the users of infrastructure of the city, at the same time has paid attention to certain norms of the Provision of the specified due approved by Decision of Pinsk city Council of deputies of 27 December 2001 No. 104 which violated the constitutional rights of citizens and legal persons. The Constitutional Court has emphasized in its Decision that with respect to many of payers of the due from the users of the infrastructure of the city specified in point 1 of the Provision there shall be effective the legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus under which they are already the payers of the compulsory payments while carrying out similar actions or in the presence of specific property. Moreover, Pinsk city Council of deputies while setting the local due from the users of infrastructure of the city has not taken into consideration the provisions of Decision of Brest oblast Council of deputies of 21 December 2001 No. 94 "On budget of oblast for 2002" in part of specification of the circle of payers of the due, finding their liability for failure to pay or untimely payment of the due in question. On the strength of that, the Constitutional Court has found point 1 of the Provision on local due from the users of infrastructure of the city, as well as the based on this point other norms of the Provision to be at variance with the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Belarus, as well as to be invalid from the day of their adoption.

     Pinsk city Council of deputies has executed Decision of the Constitutional Court. Tax payers have been returned the money resources in sum of 30023,6 thous. of roubles from the relevant local budget.

     By making analysis of the norms of the effective legislation in the sphere of local taxation, the Constitutional Court has expressed for several times its legal position concerning the fact that for the securing of the protection of the constitutional rights and lawful interests of tax payers, as well as for the purposes of pursuing in the territory of the Republic of Belarus of a unified fiscal, tax, credit and currency policy (Article 132 of the Constitution) it is necessary for the law maker to specify the exhaustive list of local taxes and dues, which may be set by the local Councils of deputies in the relevant territory. The Constitutional Court has also paid attention to the fact that the parameters of the most important elements of local taxes and dues (payers, objects of taxation, rates, procedure and terms for payment), within which the local Councils of deputies should realize their exclusive powers to set the local taxes and dues, should be also specified in the law. The Constitutional Court underlines that many of legal positions contained in its Decisions have already found its legal securing in Article 10 of the Law "On budget of the Republic of Belarus for 2004".

     Practice of examination of the cases in the Constitutional Court shall signify that the most violations are accepted by the local Councils of deputies of the based territorial level by setting local dues from the users and for the services. Due to that the Constitutional Court deems that it is necessary for the law maker to follow the way of further improvement of legal regulation of relations in the field of local taxation. This will contribute to more full realization of the relevant provisions of the Constitution (Articles 21 - 23, 121 and 132), as well as shall make it possible to remove from unconstitutional practice of setting by local Councils of deputies of local taxes and dues, which continued to take place in 2003.

     Realization of the principle of legality in the activities of local representative and executive bodies has been also subject to verification by the Constitutional Court while examining Decision of Minsk city Executive Committee of 22 June 1995 No. 399 "On measures for increasing proceeds and decreasing losses from the work of city passenger transport and shuttle-buses" envisaging realization of tickets for one journey in city passenger transport directly by the drivers. The Constitutional Court held that Decision of Minsk city Executive Committee of 22 June 1995 No. 399 was adopted within its competence specified by the laws of the Republic of Belarus. At the same time, Minsk city Executive Committee has been proposed to regulate the issue on release of the drivers from the duties to sell the tickets (subscription coupons), and, first of all, in the routes with intensive road traffic and traffic flow, with the use, as well as to consider the issue on ramifying the network system of sale of tickets, including with the use, as it took place previously, of the possibilities to retail or other forms acceptable for both the carriers and the passengers.

     In the fulfillment of the instruction of the Council of Ministers on adoption of measures concerning realization of Decision of the Constitutional Court, the Ministry of Transport and Communications has proposed the heads of public carriers of the Republic to consider the given problem and to determine the possibility of ramifying the network system of sale of tickets, as well as the necessity of release of the drivers from the sale of the tickets (coupons) in the routes of city transport.

     For the whole period of its activities the Constitutional Court has upheld successively the principles of fairness and equality in the field of criminal law regulation, secured optimal realization of democratic institutions of the criminal law in law applying practice by stimulating its transition from the formed stereotypes to the new approaches which are fully in line with the requirements of the Constitution and international legal acts.

     Since the improvement of the criminal legislation of the Republic of Belarus in recent years has been carried out towards its humanization, the special significance was taken on the issue concerning correct understanding and application in practice of the rule of retrospective effect of the criminal law. The Constitutional Court has considered several times this issue) Judgment of 9 July 1997, Decision of 5 October 2001). In its Decision of 21 October 2003 "On the grounds of review of sentences in accordance with the rule of retroactivity of the criminal law" the Constitutional Court, based on the essence and universal nature of the rule of retrospective effect of the law stipulated both in the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and in international legal acts, has changed the formed in the legislative and law applying practice approaches towards application of the rule of retrospective effect of more soft law and specified that the rule in question should be subject to application without any restrictions, in full in all instances when the new law mitigates the criminal liability. The given Decision, which was supported by the law maker, shall be directed at the restoration of the principles of equality and constitutional legality by prescribing the sentence, as well as the principle of equality of all before the law, enshrined in Article 22 of the Constitution. Norms of the effective legislation shall make it possible to use this rule in full. As for the practice of its application while making revision of the sentences delivered by the courts of law should be corrected by the Supreme Court.

     By referring time and more to examination of the issues concerning application of periodically adopting in the Republic acts on amnesty, the Constitutional Court, by securing realization of the principles of equality of all before the law and fairness, has rehabilitated the right to amnesty of the persons convicted by the courts of foreign countries, but who were transferred for serving the sentences into the Republic of Belarus; persons with respect to whom the verdicts were not enforced due to their cassation appealing (protest); persons the sentences with respect to whom have been examined by way of supervision; persons who committed crimes before enforcing the laws on amnesty, but the verdicts with respect to whom have been delivered after enforcement of the laws in question (Decisions of 17 November 2000, of 11 January 2002 and of 24 December 2002).

     In view of the fact that Decisions of the Constitutional Court have been realized in the laws on amnesty adopting subsequently, the Constitutional Court on the grounds of the constitutional principles of fairness and equality of all before the law has forwarded to the House of Representatives the proposal concerning examination of the issue on spreading the effect of the laws on amnesty of 18 January 1999 and of 14 July 2000 with respect to the persons who committed the crimes and to the convicts before the enforcement of those laws and the sentences with respect to them have been subject to examination by way of cassation or supervision, as well as spreading of the Law on amnesty of 18 January 1999 with respect to the persons convicted by the courts of the foreign countries, but who are serving their sentences in the reformatories in the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

     The Constitutional Court shall carry out consistently the policy on ensuring the constitutional right of everyone to access to justice and strictly follow the principle of direct effect of the norms of the Constitution, and, first of all, Article 60 which guarantees everyone the protection of his rights and freedoms by the competent, independent and impartial court of law. Furthermore, Decisions of the Constitutional Court shall regular underline that the norm in question as the norm of direct effect shall have supremacy owing to Article 137 of Constitution and, therefore, the right to judicial protection may not depend on its stipulation in by-constitutional acts (Judgment of 13 May 1999, Decision of 2 April 2001, of 3 April 2001, of 15 July 2002, of 24 December 2002 etc.). Failure to understand or ignoring by the officials of the principles of direct effect of the norms of the Constitution shall be resulted in violations of the constitutional rights of citizens.

     In 2003 the Constitutional Court has examined once again the issues related to securing the right to judicial protection. In its Decision of 3 November 2003 the Constitutional Court having confirmed the right of the accused to appeal to the court of law in instances, if with their consent there have been adopted the ruling on termination of the criminal case due to expiration of the limitation periods for calling to criminal liability, for the purposes of securing more full protection of the persons in question, the Constitutional Court has proposed the legislative body to specify in CCP the reasonable time during which the accused may have the possibility to lodge to the court of law the complaint on the issues connecting with termination of the proceedings in accordance with the specified ground, as well as to specify in the law the obligation of the officials of the bodies of the criminal prosecution who shall take the ruling on termination of the criminal proceedings due to expiration of the limitation periods, to explain the accused persons the legal nature and consequences of such a ruling.

     In its Decision of 1 December 2003 the Constitutional Court has pointed out that the imprisoned convicts who have no means to pay the national duty while making supervision appeals against the sentences in accordance with the procedure of supervision, shall have the right to be released from payment of the due in question and emphasized that the fair settlement by the competent State bodies of the relevant applications of the convicts taking into account the objective reasons of their material modest means should contribute to more full securing of the right to make supervision complaints against the delivered with respect to them sentences.

     For the securing of the right of the citizens to judicial protection there have been also directed Decisions of the Constitutional Court on legal regulation of payment of the national duty while examining labour disputes, as well as while filing of cassation and supervision complaints against judicial rulings under the claims on alimony recovery (Decision of 24 April 2003 and of 12 November 2003). The Constitutional Court has proposed the National Assembly to make the necessary alterations and addenda into the Law "On national duty" envisaging exemption from payment (or establishing equal conditions of payment) of the national duty of the workers under the labour disputes and the plaintiffs under the suits on alimony recovery while their appealing to the courts of law and to the bodies of the Procurator's office. Decision of the Constitutional Court of 24 April 2003 in part of exemption of the workers from the payment of the national duty under the labour disputes has been realized in the Law of 1 January 2004 "On making alterations and addenda into certain legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus on the issues of taxation".

     As a result of the study of the issues raised in the complaints the Constitutional Court has often made the proposals as regards the improvement of the criminal, criminal procedure and other legislation, which, as a rule, were subject to consideration by the law maker.

     Thus, in its Decision of 27 May 2003 about inclusion of the preventive punishment as house arrest into the term of penalty the Constitutional Court has proposed the Parliament to examine the issue on making addenda to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Code of Procedure of the Republic of Belarus, specifying the procedure and the rules of inclusion of the preventive punishment as house arrest into the term of penalty prescribed by the court of law. The given proposal has bee realized in the Law of 22 July 2003, under which there were made the relevant addenda to Article 75 of the Criminal Code, which envisage the rules of inclusion in the term of penalty of both the terms of keeping in custody and house arrest.

     The problems of constitutional legality have been also subject to analysis by the Constitutional Court while examining the issue on realization in practice of the constitutional right of citizens to use the native language. In particular, Decision of the Constitutional Court of 4 December 2003 has been directed to securing the equal use of the State languages. The Constitutional Court in this Decision has held that in the sphere of operation, turnover of bank plastic cards also in the system of the State social insurance with the formal and legal equality of the State languages there is no observance of the balance of their use in the practice. Therefore, the Constitutional Court found it necessary to submit to the Parliament the proposal on making the relevant alterations and addenda into the Law "On languages in the Republic of Belarus", as well as into other acts of legislation which are able to ensure genuine equality in the use of the State languages.

     Execution of Decisions of the Constitutional Court shall also contribute to the strengthening of the principle of the constitutional legality. The Constitutional Court notes that the majority of the State bodies shall execute thoroughly Decisions of the Court, including those of them adopted previous years. In certain instances this is conditioned by the fact that the Constitutional Court shall fix more long periods of time for the execution of its Decisions for the purposes of granting the possibility for preparation of the relevant enforceable enactments and creation of the conditions for their realization. Thus, only in 2003 there have been realized in the legislation the Decisions of the Constitutional Court connected with the issues of rendering legal aid for the convicts, securing the imprisoned convicts with the right to judicial appealing against the measures of penalty used with respect to them, the right of citizens to appeal against the ruling of the body of criminal prosecution on refuse to bring the criminal case judicially, clarification of the legal status of the civil servants, as well as the notion of the official in the criminal law under the feature of commitment of legally significant actions, licensing of the activities of educational institutions, currency regulation and other. Due to that the law appliers are bound to observe strictly the provisions of the legal acts brought into line with the Constitution.

     The Constitutional Court also emphasizes that among the State bodies the most active in timely execution of Decisions of the Constitutional Court are the local Councils of deputies, local executive and administrative bodies.

* * *

     Constitutional control shall cover all the branches of law and the spheres of law applying activities. However, the Constitutional Court is not the single State body, responsible for the constitutional legality in the State, for the creation of the law and order, which is necessary for the full exercise of the rights and liberties of an individual. Article 59 of the Constitution shall oblige all the State bodies and officials to protect the rights and freedoms of an individual and impose on them responsibility for their violations. Due to that the Constitutional Court shall rely on interaction with all the State bodies and officials whose activities should be aimed at strict adherence to the principles and the norms of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus.

     The Present Message was adopted at the session of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus of 6 February 2004.

Presiding Officer —

Chairman of the Constitutional Court

of the Republic of Belarus                                                                                               G.A. Vasilevich