News
On 27-28 April 2017 the International Conference “The Role of Constitutional Review Bodies in Ensuring the Rule of Law in Rule-Making and Law-Enforcement” was held in Minsk. The International Conference was organised by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus together with the European Commission for Democracy through Law of the Council of Europe (Venice Commission) in order to implement the cooperation of the European Union and the Council of Europe with the Eastern Partnership countries (within the framework of the program “Strengthening Constitutional Justice”)
The forum was attended by the Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy through Law Ms Herdis Kjerulf-Thorgeirsdottir, the experts: Ms Lazarova-Trajkovska – the former judge of the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Macedonia, Mr Endziņš – the former Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Latvia, the representatives of the Secretariat of the Venice Commission – Ms Granata-Menghini and Ms Gerwien.
Delegations of the constitutional courts of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, of the Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan also took part in the conference.
Among the participants of the conference there were the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus V.O. Sukalo, the Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus V.V. Mitskevich, the Minister of Justice O.L.Slizhevsky, the Chairman of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union A.A. Fedortsov, the representatives of the Parliament, scientific and legal community.
Various aspects of the rule of law were discussed: 1) as a basic principle of modern democratic states, meaning that the state is bound by law, human rights and freedoms; 2) European approaches and criteria for assessing compliance with the rule of law; 3) the role of constitutional courts in strengtheningthe rule of law as a fundamental constitutional principle in the legislation and law-enforcement.
It was noted that in the Republic of Belarus systematic work is carried out in order to implement the principle of the rule of law, observance of which becomes a rule in the activities of all state bodies, officials and individuals. Ensuring the rule of law is a guarantee for the development of democracy, the exercise of human rights and freedoms, the affirmation of the Republic of Belarus as a democratic state based on the rule of law.
Concluding the conference, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus Petr Miklashevich drew attention to the fact that the rule of law is characterised not only by the formal requirement of legality and in a state bound by law all actions of the authorities are based not only on any legal rules, but on rules oriented to the Constitution as an objective system of values. Legal protection of the Constitution through constitutional review ensures the consistency of the law-making andlaw-enforcement with the constitutional provisions and it is an important component of the effectiveness of the rule of law.
Petr Miklashevich made a presentation on “New Challenges for the Rule of Law”.