Chairman of the Constitutional Court

of the Republic of Belarus                                                                                               G.A. Vasilevich

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, 1997

The experience of the development of the Republic of Belarus as a sovereign state has manifested that securing of stability, national consent and civil peace are chief points in a transitional period. 1997 became a landmark on this path. To the Constitutional Court it was the year of further improvement of the legislation on the constitutional control and its application in practice. The Constitution enshrines the principle of formation of the Constitutional Court which is a characteristic feature of the world practice, when various state authorities participate in this process, which secures independence of the Constitutional Court. According to the established order six judges shall be appointed by the President and five judges shall be elected by the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly. The jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court has become more definite. Now it is directly specified in the Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus", under which the Court shall be competent to produce rulings on the constitutionality of the enforceable enactments which are adopted not only by supreme state bodies, but also ministries, state committees, other republican bodies of state administration, local Councils, executive and administrative bodies. This will strengthen the constitutional control. 

The Constitutional Court while exercising its functions shall remain outside the politics. It is called upon for the reinforcing of the constitutional legality consisted in maintenance the supremacy and stability of the Constitution, protection of human rights and freedoms, realization of the principle of separation of powers, observance of hierarchy of the rules of law. Under Articles 8 and 116 of the Constitution in its activities the Constitutional Court is also guided by universally acknowledged principles of international law, instruments of international law ratified by the Republic of Belarus. 

I 

In 1997 the Constitutional Court has delivered 13 decisions, including some of those in the form of conclusions. These are critical for maintaining constitutional legality, protection of human rights and freedoms. 

On 25 March 1997 given ambiguous comprehension and arising difficulties in practice of the law enforcement practice the Constitutional Court gave interpretation of the Judgment of 27 June 1996 "On the conformity between the Constitution, laws and resolution of the Supreme Council of 11 June 1993 "On the order of purchase and sale of flats (houses) in the Republic of Belarus" and Provisional regulations on the order of purchase and sale of flats (houses), approved by resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 589 of 31 August 1993". Under the constitutional guarantees to freely move and choose their place of residence within the Republic of Belarus, under the right of property and right of citizens for housing as well as universally acknowledged instruments of international law the Constitutional Court has explained that citizens of the Republic of Belarus, including residents outside the Republic, have the right to purchase flats (houses) under the contract of purchase and sale in any locality in the Republic of Belarus irrespective of their place of residence. At the same time, in the view of the Court, the law can determine special features of purchase and sale of flats (houses) in the city of Minsk, whereas Minsk as the capital of the Republic of Belarus according to the Constitution is entitled to special status. As for the foreign citizens and stateless persons who are residents of the Republic of Belarus and those having a legal source of income, they should enjoy the right to purchase and sale of flats (houses) in Belarus on equal terms with the citizens of the Republic of Belarus. In addition, there is a possibility to establish under international agreements and laws of the Republic of Belarus special features of purchase and sale of flats (houses) for them under the contracts of purchase and sale. In compliance with the effective national legislation foreign citizens and stateless persons, non-residents of the Republic of Belarus do not enjoy this right. The Court has also explained that foreign citizens and stateless persons who live outside the Republic of Belarus have the right to purchase flats (houses) in the Republic of Belarus under the international agreements and established procedure of implementation of instruments of international law treaties. 

According to the decision of the Court on interpretation of the specified Judgement the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus by the Law of 12 November 1997 has found the resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus of 11 June 1993 "On the order of purchase and sale of flats (houses) in the Republic of Belarus" void. The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus by its resolution No.1701 of 22 December 1997 has also made relevant amendments to the Provisional regulations on the procedure of purchase and sale of flats (houses) approved by resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 589 of 31 August 1997. Under presentation of public prosecutor of the city of Minsk based on interpretation of the Judgment of the Constitutional Court Minsk City Executive Committee has abrogated its decision No. 531 of 12 June 1997 "On purchase and sale of flats (houses) in the city of Minsk" and on 30 October 1997 passed a new decision on this question. 

On 15 April 1997 the Constitutional Court, following Article 42 of the Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus", has reviewed the Judgement of the Court of 4 November 1996 "On the conformity of points 2.2, 2.5 and 3 of the Resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus of 6 September 1996 "On holding a republican referendum in the Republic of Belarus and measures for securing it". (Revision of the decisions adopted before is not extraordinary according the world practice of exercising the constitutional control. Similar phenomena was observed in the practice of the activities of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus, which in November 1995 through interpretation practically reviewed its Judgment of 30 October 1995). 

While delivering its decision of 15 April 1997 the Court proceeded from the fact that the Judgement of 4 November 1996 bore contradictory and selective character. Resolutions did not correspond to the adduced motivations. Findings of the Court when passing the Judgement were not based on the Constitution and the acting legislation. The Court was not empowered to verify constitutionality of the resolution of the Supreme Council of 6 September 1996. The resolution in question was not a normative act. In reality that resolution was a law enforcing act. While determining its position concerning the fact that the specified resolution of the Supreme Council had no normative character, the Constitutional Court when passing its decision of 15 April 1997 also took into account the Recomendatory enactment "On the normative legal acts of the CIS Member States", approved on 13 May 1995 by the resolution of Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS Member States containing the definition of the concept of a normative act. 

While on 4 November 1996 passing its Judgment the Court did not take into account the fact that the President of the Republic of Belarus, by putting forward the proposal of holding obligatory republican referendum to the Supreme Council, acted within the limits of his authorities and according to the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Belarus. The resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus of 6 September 1996 was also adopted within the limits of its powers and was based on the Constitution and the laws. At the same time, the Constitutional Court was not empowered to verify the constitutionality of holding referenda.  

The Constitutional Court under the proposal of the Supreme Court has verified the constitutionality of point 3 of Section III "Final Clauses " of the Law of 17 May 1997 " On introduction of amendments and alternations into the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Belarus". 

The law of 17 May 1997 has changed approach to estimation of the degree of public danger of separate crimes by means of increasing multiple rates of minimum wages while making qualification of the theft property and other crimes which are connected with damnification. 

Thus, petite theft of property under Article 72 of the Criminal Code has become a theft of a sum which does not exceed a ten-fold amount of the established minimum wage at the moment of crime (before - one minimum wage). While formerly large and extra large amounts (damages) when committing a crime were considered amounts which exceeded minimum wages by forty times and more and by hundred times and more at the moment of crime then after the amendments made thereto, - by two hundred fifty and by one thousand times more than the established minimum wages respectively. Article 911 of the Criminal Code on the responsibility for theft property in extra large amounts has been excluded and this extra large amounts has been introduced into appropriate parts of Articles 87, 88, 89, 90 and 91 of the Criminal Code as a qualifying feature. The minimum limits of punishment as imprisonment for extra big theft have been reduced from 10 years to 7 and 8 years. All these signifies extenuation of responsibility for the crimes in question. 

Only for the reason that Article 911 has been excluded from the Criminal Code, the revision of criminal cases condemned under the Article in question should be carried out for they cannot serve sentences for the offences which are not stipulated by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.  

The Constitutional Court has come to the conclusion that the Law of 17 May 1997 extenuates responsibility as a resulting from changing qualification criteria of a number of crimes as well as extenuation of punishment for theft property in extra large amounts. Actually it was recognized by the legislator in point 2 Section III of "Final Clause" of the Law of 17 May 1997, by applying of norms of Article 6 of the Criminal Code concerning persons who have made offences on which the sentences have not come into legal force. Under this Article the law which revokes punishability for an offence or extenuates the punishment shall have retrospective action, i.e. shall be applied to the offences committed before its promulgation. At the same time the Parliament has restricted the effect of retrospective action of the criminal law, without envisaging the possibilities of revision of the sentences passed on for the same offences if they have already come into force. Thus, the effect of the retrospective action of a law has been put under dependence on the fact whether a sentence passed on has come or has not come into legal force. The findings of the Constitutional Court were based on the effective Constitution, instruments of the international law and other acts. 

Under Article 104.6 of the Constitution the law shall have no retrospective action unless it extenuates or revokes the responsibility of citizens. 

Point 1 of Article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that if, following the perpetrated crime the law establishes milder punishment, the action of this law shall be applied to the criminal in question. 

Similar approach to interpreting of the rule of retrospective action is also fixed in Article 43 of the Recomendatory enactment "On the normative legal acts the CIS Member States" approved by Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member States on 13 May 1995 as well as in Article 12 of the Model Criminal Code for the CIS Member States approved by Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member States on 17 February 1996, where, in particular, it is specified that the law which revokes criminality of an offence, commutes a sentence or by any other means improves the status of a criminal shall have retrospective action, i. e. shall apply to the persons who have committed a relevant offence before the law in question has come into legal force, including the persons who are serving a sentence. 

The Constitutional Court found point 3 of Section III of "Final Clauses" of the Law in question to be unconstitutional in part of inadmissibility of revision of valid sentences on crimes under which qualifying features have been amended depending on the amount of theft or the damage caused. 

The Constitutional Court has proposed to the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus to make necessary amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Belarus. That kind of law has been adopted by the Parliament. 

Having considered the case on the constitutionality and legality of point 12.4.11 of the Methodical Instructions of the Main State Tax Inspection "On the order of application of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On taxes and dues deducted to the budget of the Republic of Belarus" and the Law "On introduction of amendments and alternations into legal acts of the Republic of Belarus on taxation" No. 110 of 1 July 1994, as well as Interpretations of the Main State Tax Inspection No. 03/104 of 21 June 1994 and No. 03/22 of 7 February 1995 in part of pointing out to the obligatory exaction from the infringers of the tax legislation of an additional tax and fine for delay in pay, the Court found normative acts in question to be constitutional and valid. 

The Court has emphasized that the state shall have the right and is legally bound to take measures concerning the regulation of tax with the purpose of protection of the rights and lawful interests of the tax payers. Determination of judicial responsibility for the infringement of the tax legislation is related, in particular, to the measures ensuring fulfilment of tax obligations.  

The decision on this case, raised as a result of a constitutional motion filed by the Supreme Economic Court was a matter of principle for forming a common judicial practice when examining the cases of the given category by the republican economic courts. 

The complications in execution of the decision of the Constitutional Court of 28 May 1996 "On the conformity of Article 88 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On pension" and Article 56 of the Law of The Republic of Belarus "On pension for military servicemen, commanding staff and rank and file of the bodies of internal affairs" to the Constitution" were the cause for consideration of the case on interpretation of the Judgment in question. 

The Court has expounded that while dealing with payment of labour pensions granted under the Law "On pension" to the persons who are in the places of confinement the right of a legislative body, other state bodies within their competence is not excluded for envisaging the rules of compensation, at the expense of these pensions, and costs for allowances of the specified persons in correctional facilities, reimbursement of damage caused by their crimes, as well as payments under other obligations. Similarly aspects concerning the persons who are in the places of confinement when paying pensions granted under the Law "On pension of military servicemen, commanding staff and rank and file of the agencies of internal affairs" can be decided. In addition, if expenses for pensioners in the places of confinement exceed the scales of the appointed pension, the legislation may determine the minimum sum of pension paid to the pensioner. The Constitutional Court expounded that aspects of social pension payment for the persons in the places of confinement may be decided with taking into account objective purpose of the pensions in question and the state possibilities.  

The consideration of the specified case on interpretation of the previous Constitutional Court Judgment revealed the necessity for improvement of the pension legislation concerning, in particular, pensioners both in the places of confinement and those rendered additional social services from the state (for example, pensioners in boarding houses). The decision of the Constitutional Court of 27 November 1997 on interpretation of the Judgment is called also to promote protection of property and other rights of crime victims based on the damage caused. 

The Constitutional Court believes that the relevant amendments, in view of its decisions, should be introduced to the pension legislation in the nearest future. 

II 

Under the Article 40 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus everyone has the right to address personal or collective appeals to state bodies who, in their turn, shall consider them and furnish a reply on points of fact. Last year the Constitutional Court received about 500 appeals. While the Constitutional Court does not enjoy the right to initiate proceedings on the motion filed by the citizens, it has used other forms of their settlement according to the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Belarus. The appeals of the citizens were examined and received appropriate explanations by the Court. In cases of necessity appeals were directed to the competent bodies with the request to investigate the issue emerged from concrete persons and give them possible aid in their settlements. In the majority of cases state bodies (parliamentary commissions, the Council of Ministers, the Procurator's Office of the Republic, the Ministry of Social Security, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defence etc.) regard the materials submitted by the Court with the understanding. 

The Constitutional Court emphasizes that contents of a considerable part of the appeals of the citizens are beyond the frames of personal interests, have social importance and allow to make certain conclusions concerning the degree of legal security of certain categories of citizens. Major appeals contain not only critical statements aimed at concrete state bodies and officials who, as the declarance assume, ignore their rights and lawful interests but also estimate the effective legislation which, in their view, does not properly ensure constitutional human rights and freedoms , there is also a demand for its improvement. 

Citizens, legal persons, law enforcing bodies of the Republic have some difficulties, in particular, concerning undue legal settlement of the aspects of promulgation of the enforceable enactments and their validity period. The active legislation on these aspects does not properly correspond to the provisions of Article 7 of the Constitution. The rules of adoption and coming into force of the enforceable enactments are determined by various acts, which do not regulate in full and definitely the relevant relations. Some Ministries and other state bodies do not submit their enforceable enactments in time for state registration, including those concerning the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of the citizens. The promulgation of all registered acts is not always secured. The situation with publication of the enforceable enactments of local councils of the deputies and local executive administrative bodies cannot be recognized satisfactory. In this connection it is necessary to ensure unconditional observance of the rule that the enforceable enactments involving human rights and freedoms, shall enter into force only upon their official promulgation. 

The Court believes that the issues of this kind could be resolved by the adoption of a law which could uniformly and comprehensively regulate all aspects of lawmaking activities: procedure of preparation of drafts of enforceable enactments of different legal force; their adoption, coming in force and termination; the rules of settlement of contradictions (collisions); aspects of retroactivity of enforceable enactments, conditions of the effect of certain norms after repeal of acts etc. 

Certain citizens and legal persons lodge to the Constitutional Court appeals in which they draw attention to the violation in certain cases of the provision of Article 60 of the Constitution under which everyone shall be guaranteed protection of his rights and freedoms by the competent, independent and impartial court of law. There are facts when people are seeking the right to defend their interests in court for a long time but they are refused. Thus, for example, in case of termination of a criminal case at the pre-trial stage of investigation decisions of the appropriate bodies are removed from the judicial control. Moreover, there are references to Article 209.6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Belarus, containing the norm under which court ruling on termination of the case may be appeal to the public prosecutor. This provision is considered by courts, bodies of prejudicial inquiry and investigative bodies as ruling out the lodgment of a similar appeal to the court. 

In order to observe the constitutional legality of this aspect it is necessary to ensure direct effect of the provisions of Article 60 of the Constitution and make amendments to Article 209 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, admitting appeal to the court for the persons whose rights and lawful interests are affected by termination of a criminal proceeding. 

The proposal of the Constitutional Court on improvement of the legislation in this regard has been already submitted to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on 27 December 1996. 

A considerable part of appeals involves other limitations of their possibility to appeal for protection to the courts of law. Thus, resulting from introduction of national duty when applying to the court for labour disputes under the Law "On national duty", increase in payment for the advocate service activities has posed essential obstacles for poor citizens, who needing judicial protection. The guarantees of the right to judicial protection are decreased by the requirement to pay national duty when applying to courts and public prosecutor's offices with supervision complaints against the court ruling effect. In this respect the Constitutional Court considers that the effective legislation on national duty which is raised for appeal of citizens in courts or public prosecutor's offices for protection of their rights needs to be revised, especially as regards poor persons who are unable to pay the national duty. At the same time the Constitutional Court draws attention to the necessity of timely revision of the rates of national duty for certain categories of cases of a non-property character. 

Letters, incoming to the Constitutional Court signify frequent facts of the exceeding maximum (one-and-a half-year) term of custody for grave suspects provided by Article 92 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Belarus. This causes violation of standards of the national legislation as well as International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. To remove this kind of infringement it is necessary to strengthen relevant legal guarantees on the legislative level as well as supervision and judicial control. 

Considerable amount of citizens' appeals is dedicated to the aspects of financial compensation caused by inflationary devaluation of citizens' savings previously deposited to the Savings banks as well as non-implementation by the Government of the Republic of Belarus of loan commitments of the former USSR. Citizens express their concern that under the conditions of continuous inflation the aspects of damage reimbursement are being settled extremely slowly and disregarding the living standards of the people, especially of elderly people. It is essential, in this respect, to speed up adoption of the enforceable enactment which is now under preparation way on reimbursement to the citizens of the Republic of Belarus of the losses caused by devaluation of deposits in Savings bank and bonds of purpose interest-free loan of 1990 for purchase of durable goods. Significance of settlement of this issue is predetermined by the provision of Article 44.4 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus under which the State shall encourage and protect the savings of its citizens and guarantee the return of deposits. The Judgment of the Constitutional Court of 21 June 1995 does not prevent competent bodies from finding a proper decision on payment of compensation to the holders of bonds of purpose interest-free loan of 1990. 

Letters of labour veterans point to imperfection of the pension legislation, in particular, that the existing rules of pension calculation leads to the pension-levelling, the factual undervaluation of a worker qualification, job history and actual labour contribution. 

Considerable number of appeals to the Constitutional Court is related to contradictions in the effective legislation concerning the privileges granted to different groups of citizens. Alterations and amendments to the law, regulating granting of privileges to different groups of citizens were made by the Law of 3 May 1996. However, full regulation of the legislation of privileges has not been implemented. It is necessary in this respect to settle contradictions of the legislation on privileges, concerning entailing serious divergences in law applicable practice and numerous appeals of the citizens.  

Citizens in their appeals to the Constitutional Court displayed a good deal of censures aimed at tax agencies which, in their opinion, abuse their powers when carrying out normative creative work. Having analyzed these issues and considered concrete cases the Constitutional Court found that imperfection and contradiction of the legislation on taxation practice of its application are the reasons for this kind of appeals. In Court's opinion it is essential, without delaying the settlement of possible disputes to study, in advance the legitimacy of the adopted departmental enforceable enactments also by means of submitting proposals to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus on examination of their conformity to the Constitution and laws. The adoption of the Tax Code taking into account the positive experience of tax law development could be conducive to the regulation of tax relations. 

The analysis of the appeals indicates the necessity of broadening legal possibilities of the Constitutional Court with respect to the protection of constitutional human rights and freedoms. This would fully comply with the concept of Article 61 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus under which everyone shall have the right in accordance with the international instruments ratified by the Republic of Belarus to appeal to international organisations to defend their rights and freedoms, provided all available interstate means of legal defence have been exhausted. In compliance with Article 116 of the Constitution the competence of the Constitutional Court shall be determined by the law. Hereby, the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus allows to stipulate in the law the right of the Constitutional Court to initiate proceedings on the verification of the constitutionality of enforceable enactments when the proposals come from the citizens. The establishment of these rules would correspond to the interests of the protection of human rights, international practice as well as the objectives of the state functioning. 

The experience of exercise of constitutional control illustrates that its effectiveness may be enhanced by means of broadening the circle of subjects entitled to initiate the verification by the Constitutional Court the conformity of the enforceable enactments to the Constitution. Under the Constitution the Procurator-General and subordinate public prosecutors supervise strict and unified implementation of the laws, decrees, regulations in the Republic. They bring objections against the enactments contradictory to the laws to the bodies which have passed this enactments or to the higher organs. Yet, in many instances well-grounded objections remain disregarded. In this connection it is expedient to introduce amendments to the law on the Procurator's Office and to the law on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus under which the Procurator-General of the Republic of Belarus would have the right to file constitutional motions on verification of the constitutionality of those enforceable enactments the implementation of which, in his opinion, violating or infringing upon the human secured by the Constitution or creating hurdles for their implementation. 

III 

In 1997 the Constitutional Court exercised its right to submit proposals to state authorities aimed at strengthening of the constitutional legality and improvement of effective legislation with the purpose of more complete securing of realization of human rights and freedoms. This form of Court's work has proved to be effective. 

In 1997 the Constitutional Court forwarded to the President, Parliament and the Government, other state bodies a number of proposals the majority of which found understanding and endorsement. In particular, were approved the proposals initiated by the Constitutional Court on making amendments to the Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus" which determine the mechanism of implementation of the provisions of Article 112 of the Constitution. Article 6 of the Law on the Constitutional Court specifies that if while considering a specific case a court (court of law or economic court) concludes that an enforceable enactment is contrary to the Constitution, it makes a ruling in accordance with the Constitution and, after a ruling of a court enters into force encourages the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus or the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus to filing to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus a motion challenging the constitutionality of the enforceable enactment. Plenary meeting of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus in its resolution of 29 October 1997 expounded that courts shall have the right to cease the proceedings and appeal to the Chair of a court, encouraging initiation of a motion before the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus concerning filing a constitutional motion to the Constitutional Court on the verification of the constitutionality of an enforceable enactment. Similar procedure should also be used in respect to the courts of law, since the explanation of the Supreme Court does not fully reply to the issues emerging in practice.  

The practice indicates that by considering concrete cases the courts often reveal contradictions between the Constitution and enforceable enactments. However, they do not make relevant proposals to the Constitutional Court according to the established procedure. Thereby, the requirement of Article 112 of the Constitution, direct effect of the constitutional provisions and timely improvement of the legislation in force are not secured. 

Support was also given to the Constitutional Court initiative on making amendments to the Law "On the Economic Court in the Republic of Belarus" and the Code of Economic Procedure of the Republic of Belarus concerning the issues of nullifying the enactments of state bodies and other organs inconsistent with the legislation and affecting the interests of the subjects of economy. At present, these aspects, as it is stipulated by the Constitution, are within the competence of the Constitutional Court. In this connection we believe that, while receiving appeals from the subjects of economy to the Supreme Economic Court, it should not be limited by the explanations of subjects enjoying the right to filing motions to the Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of the enforceable enactments yet, in well-grounded cases filing motions to the Constitutional Court on the verification of the constitutionality of the enforceable enactments, especially when the raised issues are of a social significance. 

On the proposal of the Constitutional Court the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus considers amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure which provide for the possibility of financial compensation of moral damage for a crime victim. However, this are not the only problems, concerning financial compensation of moral damage caused to the citizen. Article 60.2 of the Constitution the Republic of Belarus enshrines the right of the citizens to recover under the law and through the courts property damage and financial compensation for moral damage. The concept of moral damage lacks in the effective legislation and the possibilities of its financial compensation are determined by a low number of enforceable enactments and in very scarce instances. In the Constitutional Court's view financial compensation for moral damage should be secured in instances of infringement of personal non-property rights and other rights and freedoms, including as a result of criminal encroachments. Therefore, it is expedient along with the introduction of the concept of moral damage to the Civil Code and general conditions for its financial compensation to include the norms, providing possibility of financial compensation for moral damage in the administrative, labour, housing, procedural and other branches of the legislation. 

Given the collective appeals of the citizens and under Articles 40 and 50 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus the Constitutional Court proposed to the Government to make relevant amendments to the enforceable enactments on the passports of the citizens. According to the Court's initiative it is envisaged, at a citizen's will, to make a mark on his or her nationality in the new passport. These amendments were made by resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 394 of 24 April 1997 to the Provision on the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Belarus and entailed neither changings in the approved specimens of passports nor considerable expenses. 

On the initiative of the Court the Government has also made amendments to its resolution No. 309 of 9 April 1997, securing in larger degree activities of children's, youth and religious camps.  

It should be admitted that there is a good deal of grounds for the improvement of legislation. They are mainly based on the necessity of consistent realization of the tasks for further development of legal system of the Republic of Belarus. 

In 1997 the President, Parliament and Government took measures on bringing the legislation of the Republic of Belarus into conformity with the Constitution, adopting a number of enforceable enactments aimed at implementation of constitutional human rights and freedoms, specification of the legal status and the rules of activities of certain state bodies. At the same time many aspects of the state construction in the Republic of Belarus still need legislative regulation. It is necessary to expedite the adoption of the laws on the Council of Ministers, administrative and territorial structure, determine according to the law legal status of the deputies of the House of Representatives and members of the Council of the Republic, rules and procedure of their election and recall; make amendments to the law on referendum, local government and self-government, judicial system and status of judges; determine the rules of implementation by the citizens of the right to legislative initiative etc. 

Simultaneously the elaboration of relevant draft legislative acts priority remains with the task of systematization and codification of the legislation and adoption of the new Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Criminal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Land Code, the Labour Code and other codes. Worth of endorsement is the President's decision concerning urgent preparation and submission of a number of codified enactments to the National Assembly. 

Preparation of the legislative acts aimed at direct implementation of the provisions of the Constitution, especially in the sphere of security of constitutional human rights and freedoms should be referred to as the priority for the legislation improvement. Significance of this issue in 1998 also results from the 50th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which determined international and legal standards in this area. 

Article 142 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus enshrines that the laws, decrees and other acts applied in the territory of the Republic of Belarus prior to the entry into force of the present Constitution shall be applied if not contradictory to the Constitution. In this respect the state bodies must undertake registration and analysis of the enforceable enactments adopted by them or by the bodies within their jurisdiction aimed at timely revealing the contradictions of these enactments to the Constitution , amending or to repealing them. 

IV 

In order to improve the practice of the constitutional control in the Republic of Belarus the Constitutional Court develops international co-operation. International working relations have been established with the foreign bodies of constitutional control, including those of the CIS States. Exchange of the official publications and materials in the field of constitutional law is carried out with the foreign bodies of the constitutional control and international organizations of other States.  

The judges of the Constitutional Court took part in the scientific and practical conferences, seminars, symposiums on the issues of the improvement of the constitutional control which were held both in the Republic as well as abroad.24 October 1997 the Constitutional Court and the bodies of the constitutional control of five other CIS Member-States established the Conference of Constitutional Courts of the new democracies as a consultative body. The main goals of this organ are sharing work experience, holding mutually beneficial subject discussions on topical issues of constitutional justice. The Conference is open for membership of the bodies of constitutional control from other new democracies. 

* * * 

Attributing great importance to the strengthening of the constitutional legality, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus considers as the main direction of its activities the protection of human rights and expects understanding and support on the part of the President, the National Assembly, other state authorities of the Republic of Belarus. 

The Constitutional Court believes that the ideas and proposals expressed in the present Message will be accepted positively by all state bodies and implemented in the legislation and the practice of its application.  

The present Message was adopted on 11 February 1998 at the sitting of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus. 

Presiding Officer —