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, G.A. Vorobei, K.I. Kenik, V.V. Podgrusha, A.A. Sarkisova, A.G. Tikovenko, R.I. Filipchik, V.I. Shabailov, G.B. Shishko, V.Z. Shuklin, having heard judge-speaker, V.V. Podgrusha, on the practice of publication in 1998 of resolutions of the Government of the Republic of Belarus concerning rights, liberties and obligations of citizens,

RULED:

1. To approve the text of the letter to S.S. Ling, the Prime-Minister of the Republic of Belarus (enclosure).

Presiding Officer —

Chairman of the Constitutional Court

of the Republic of Belarus                                                                                              G.A. Vasilevich

Mr S.S. Ling
Prime-Minister
of the Republic of Belarus

     Dear Sergei Stepanovich!

     As it follows from Article 1 of the Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus" the Constitutional Court shall be established to guarantee the primacy of the Constitution and its direct application to the territory of the Republic as well as the compliance of acts of state organs with the Constitution, to confirm the lawfulness of the preparation and application of legislation and to rule on other questions provided for in the Constitution and in the specified Law.

     Analysis of the practice of application of the enforceable enactments of the Government of the Republic of Belarus concerning the rights, liberties and obligations of citizens signifies non-fulfilment of the requirements of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and of the Law "On the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus and subordinated thereto state organs" in part of obligatory publication of the acts in question.

     Article 7 of the Constitution stipulates that enforceable enactments of state bodies shall be published or promulgated by some means specified in law.

     Under Article 34 of the Constitution citizens of the Republic of Belarus shall be guaranteed the right to receive, store and disseminate complete, reliable and timely information of the activities of state bodies etc. Gender notion "information" using in the given Article shall include legal information as the most important component as well. That is confirmed by Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 1 December 1998 No. 565 "On procedure of dissemination of legal information in the Republic of Belarus". In accordance with point 3 of the Provision on the procedure of dissemination of legal information approved by the given Decree state bodies shall secure official publication of the adopted (issued) legal acts in accordance with legislation.

     Article 28 of the Law "On the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus and state bodies subordibated thereto" envisages that resolutions of the Council of Ministers concerning the rights, liberties and obligations of citizens shall come into force after their official publication only. The norm which is similar to that given above has been also contained in the Law "On the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus" and in other acts which have determined the procedure of publication and coming into force of decisions of the Government (see e.g. Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 15 August 1994 No. 49 "On some issues of organization of work of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus").

     The Constitutional Court in its decision of 9 November 1994 "On application in the Republic of Belarus of non-published or non-promulgated by some means specified in law enforceable enactments of state bodies" (Vesnik Kanstytutsijnaga Suda Respubliki Belarus, 1995, No. 1, pp. 63-65) has noted the inadmissibility of violation of the requirements of the Constitution and laws on the right of citizens to receive complete, reliable and timely legal information.

     Meanwhile, only in 1998 the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus adopted a number of enforceable enactments concerning rights and obligations of citizens which have not been published. Among them: Model provision on special aged and invalid boarding house (approved by resolution of 11 February 1998 No. 210), Temporal provision on Unified state register of property, the rights to which are restricted by pledge obligations (approved by resolution of 13 April 1998 No. 585), Provision on the procedure of providing disabled persons with transportation facilities and compensation for their transport service expenses (in new wording approved by resolution of 22 June 1998 No. 988) and others.

     The reference contained in the Collection of decrees, edicts of the President and resolutions of the Government of the Republic of Belarus to the fact that the given in resolution addenda (Provision, Rule etc.) are not cited and that they are available in oblast executive committees and in Minsk city executive committee, as well as in the ministries and other republican bodies of state administration, is not a form of official publication as it is required by the law.

     In this connection the Constitutional Court proposes to take measures on urgent publication of the enforceable enactments concerning rights, liberties and obligations of citizens.

     Adopted at the session of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus (decision of 12 February 1999). Is forwarding in the procedure envisaged by Article 7 of the Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus".

Yours sincerely

Chairman G.A. Vasilevich