New in legislation

It is no secret that the number of unemployed young people has increased recently. There are parents who agree to support their able-bodied children, believing that their children deserve a better place and a high salary, based on the principle of "everything at once." This cultivates idleness and a dependent mentality. Idlers parasitize on the lenient attitude of their relatives, but sooner or later such immoral behavior leads to offenses and crimes. Statistics show that the majority of individuals suffering from alcohol addiction and sent to therapeutic labor rehabilitation centers are unemployed. Every third property crime is committed by unemployed persons. One earns, and another takes it from him. For whom is freedom? From this point of view, social justice can be ensured by restricting certain freedoms.

According to Art. 59 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the state is obliged to take all available measures to establish internal order necessary for the full exercise of the rights and freedoms of citizens; state bodies, officials, and other persons entrusted with the performance of state functions are obliged, within the scope of their competence, to take the necessary measures for the exercise and protection of the rights and freedoms of the individual.

The implementation of the above-mentioned constitutional norms and principles is directed, inter alia, by: the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Procedure and Conditions for Sending Citizens to Therapeutic Labor Rehabilitation Centers and the Conditions of Stay Therein," the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Fundamentals of Crime Prevention Activities."

By the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated December 10, 2020, amendments were made to the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Procedure and Conditions for Sending Citizens to Therapeutic Labor Rehabilitation Centers and the Conditions of Stay Therein." The range of persons to whom such a restrictive measure as isolation in a therapeutic labor rehabilitation center can be applied has been expanded. These include able-bodied unemployed citizens leading an antisocial lifestyle, in respect of whom preventive supervision has been established, or who are subject to

preventive observation (except for convicted persons under Articles 77- 79 and 117 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, as well as those conditionally released early from serving their sentence), or in accordance with the third, fourth, and sixth paragraphs of part two of Article 28 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Fundamentals of Crime Prevention Activities," preventive registration is carried out for those who have been brought to administrative responsibility two or more times within a year for committing an administrative offense while in a state of alcoholic intoxication or in a state caused by the use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues, toxic or other intoxicating substances.

Thus, we see that not just unemployed citizens can be sent to therapeutic and labor prophylactic institutions, but those leading an antisocial lifestyle, registered for preventive observation due to committing offenses while intoxicated in relation to family members, and violating the rights of other citizens.

In accordance with Art. 61 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Procedure and Conditions

supervision over the accurate and uniform enforcement of legislation on the referral of citizens to therapeutic labor prophylactic institutions and their stay therein is carried out by the Prosecutor General and the prosecutors subordinate to him.

The following may be appealed to the prosecutor: a decision by the head of the territorial internal affairs body or his deputy to send a citizen for a medical examination; a warning about the possibility of being sent to a therapeutic labor prophylactic institution; a decision by the head of the therapeutic labor prophylactic institution or his deputy to apply a disciplinary measure against a citizen.

 

Head of the Department for Supervision over

Compliance with the Law of Judicial

Decisions in Civil Cases

of the Regional Prosecutor's Office

Irina Titkova