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Summary: General overview of Belarus's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.
National laws on children's rights Status of the CRC in national law Constitution: Childhood is specifically included within the remit of the House of Representatives' (Palata Predstaviteley) law-making powers under Article 97 of the Constitution. Article 32 contains the only explicit references to the substantive rights of children, including: Art. 32(1), which provides that “[m]arriage, the family, motherhood, fatherhood, and childhood shall be under the protection of the State.” Art 32(2), which contains provisions relating to parental obligations to raise children, a prohibition on cruel treatment and humiliation of children, and a prohibition on work that may be harmful to a child's physical, mental or moral development. A clause within art. 32(2), which also contains a reciprocal obligation for children to care for their parents or legal guardians. Legislation: Belarusian law has a number of general codes that cover large areas of national law. The codes with specific relevance in relation to the rights of children include the Civil and Criminal Codes and Codes of Procedure, the Labour Code, and the Marriage and Family Code. Other relevant laws include, but are by no means limited to: Law of the republic of Belarus on Child's Rights No. 2570-XII of 19th Nov. 1993 (amended as of 14th Jul. 2007) Presidential Decree No. 675 of 16th Nov. 2006 on the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Act No. 200-Z of 31st May 2003 on the bases of the child-neglect and juvenile delinquency prevention system Presidential Decree No. 318 of 15th May 2006 on the “Children of Belarus 2006-2010” Presidential Programme Presidential Decree No. 18 of 24th Nov. 2006 on supplementary measures for affording State protection to children in dysfunctional families The Law on Allowances to Families with Children of 1st Apr. 2002 Act No 285-Z of 18th May 2004 on the education of persons with special developmental needs Act No. 73-Z of 21st December 2005 on guaranteeing the social protection of under-age or other young orphans or other under-age or young persons deprived of parental care Legal Research: Case law Case Law Research Supreme Court plenum decision No. 9 of 20th Dec. 2000 on judicial practice regarding adoption Supreme Court plenum decision No. 7 of 26th Sep. 2002 on judicial practice regarding the deprivation of parental rights (particularly regarding the child's rights and interests) Compliance with the CRC In depth analysis: Current legal reform projects
The International Treaties Act of 1998 incorporated international treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, into domestic law. As such, the rights contained in ratified international treaties may be invoked in national courts.
The government's National Internet Legal Portal (NILP) provides Belarusian legislation in Russian and Belarusian (http://www.pravo.by/webnpa/webnpa.asp), as well as limited information in English. The GlobaLex initiative at New York University has published a guide to legal research in Belarus (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Belarus.htm), and the U.S. Library of Congress has compiled a selection of relevant links (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/belarus.php). The Constitution of Belarus is available in English (http://belarus.net/costitut/constitution_e.htm) as well as in Russian and Belarusian from the NILP. CRIN has also produced a report on children's rights in Belarusian law (http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=18113&flag=report).
CRC Jurisprudence
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national courts that reference the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Court decisions and precedents generally do not play a large role in Belarusian law. However, proclamations by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Economic Court on the application of legislation are binding on courts and all other bodies applying the law. Cases of particular importance to children's rights include:
The Committee has expressed concern that full compatibility of national laws with the Convention is yet to be achieved, noting that legislation “[did] not reflect the comprehensive rights-based approach of the Convention”.
With regard to the views of the child, the high level of judicial discretionary power was singled out as an instance in which the law did not conform with the Convention, while the implementation of Articles 13 (Freedom of Expression), 15 (Freedom of Association) and 17 (Access to Appropriate Information) was considered limited. Perhaps the area of most concern, however, was in the administration of juvenile justice. Whilst noting reform in 2002, the Committee criticised the absence of a comprehensive juvenile justice system with specialist prosecutors and lawyers trained to hear juvenile cases. In addition, it stressed that detention ought to be a last resort for children, and that alternative measures were rarely applied in the Belarusian legal system.
In its 2010 Concluding Observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child noted pending juvenile justice reforms and expressed concern at the measures in the draft penal code to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14, as well as at the lack of clarity as to whether children in conflict with the law between the ages of 16 and 18 would retain the benefits of special protection for juvenile offenders. It is not yet clear whether such concerns have been taken into account in the reform process, as these specifics are part of a larger scale revision of the Unified Justice System, which was being developed in a large number of legislative drafts at the time of the most recent report to the Committee.