Регламентация прав человека и гражданина в Конституции Республики Беларусь

Abstract

Civil and human rights is the most important institution of constitutional law. Its special development in the spheres of both internal and international law took place in the second part of the XXth century and is one of the most significant results of the mankind's legal development. Being the indicator of the correspondence of political and legal system of the state to modern international standards, it is called upon to provide secure and dignified human life and the possibility of a person's free activities in the complicated conditions of modern society. The norms, which guarantee the human rights adopted by the international law as the basic ones, in the international legislation are relevant first of all to the constitutional level, that is why the subject of this study is first of all the constitution of 1994 (with amendments and alterations of 24.10.96). The adoption of the 1994 Constitution of the Republic of Belarus was preceded by the renewal of the social order and the beginning of economic transition to the market system , the admission of various property forms, pluralism development, realization of power by people, the growth of security level and the enhancement of cooperation with international community. In science it was characterized by transition from the marxist concept to the universal concept of human rights. The constitution is in principle a new document in which the humane orientation of the development of our society is fixed. Priority is given to personal and universal values. This is a characteristic feature of the new concept of human rights which shows the rejection of the priority of state interests over those of an individual inherent in socialist theory. A classification of basic rights and freedoms of citizens, fixed earlier in Chapter 5 and Article 37 of the BSSR Constitution of 1978 is mostly retained in the 1994 Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. However, the sequence of their presentation has changed: individual rights and freedoms of a citizen, political rights and freedoms, social economic rights. The Chapter "Equality of Citizens" was deleted. Such a classification allowed to cover all kinds of rights and freedoms of citizens. The fact that human rights and freedoms were given the first place underlines the application of the concept of natural human rights to the activities of our state. For the first time the provision on the priority of the universally recognized principles of international law and adjustment of national legislation to it was fixed in the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. The Soviet state regarded the sphere of human rights to be completely internal. The intervention of international organizations into this sphere was prohibited. In practice no activities were permitted which were connected with monitoring on the territory of the USSR of how the international law norms were applied: the right to appeal to international organizations for the human rights enforcement and protection, the right to form social organizations to protect these rights. The given principle was to a great extent realized in the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation. The constitution of our country in its Article 59 gives a general formulation: "A state should take all possible measures for the establishment of internal and international order necessary for full realization of rights and freedoms of citizens of the Republic of Belarus envisaged by the Constitution." More than a half of the articles of the Constitution of our country are devoted to the definition of the legal status of an individual and a citizen. These articles are concentrated in Section 2 "Individual, Society, State", separate articles are in Section 1 "Constitutional Order Basis", Section 3 "The Election System. Referendum", Section 6 "The Court" and Section 5 "Regional Administration" and self Government". "To guarantee" is one of the most important constitutionally declared principles, which have received legal realization in different forms both as a general basis, which presupposes realization in full of the whole volume of rights and human freedoms and by means of codification of concrete guarantees of every right and freedom as such. The state is the main subject on which the guarantees of rights and freedoms are placed. In contrast to the Constitution of the Russian Federation the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus does not indicate directly the role of the state as a main guarantor of human rights and freedoms, however, this role stems from a number of the articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus (6, 10, 60, etc.).For the first time ever the citizens of the Republic of Belarus, numbering no less than 50 thousand people, obtained the right of legislative initiative (Article 99). In accordance with the juridical content of political rights and freedoms, citizens have a right to the demand from state the execution of its obligations fixed in the Constitution. However, in the Republic of Belarus there is no integrated legal mechanism which should regulate the legal procedure of realization of political rights and freedoms. And this is very important for widening of the forms of the people's realization of power. Social economic rights represent a separate group of basic rights in the Constitution. They include the right to work, the right to rest and leisure, the property right, the right to health care including free medical treatment in the state-owned health care establishments, the right to favourable environment, etc. The lack in the Constitution of the provision, fixing the function of the office of Republic Prosecutor concerning the sphere of human rights protection, can be regarded as a drawback in the system of constitutional guarantees. In conclusion it is necessary to note that in general the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus codifies all provisions of the International legal acts concerning legal status of the individual.