Justice

The Main Department of Justice of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee:

· carries out the state registration of commercial organizations with the participation of foreign and international organizations, local public associations, local funds, organizational structures of republican state-public associations;

· forms and maintains the territorial part of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs;

· carries out the state registration, registration of organizational structures of political parties, professional unions, other public associations.

The state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the Vitebsk region, with the exception of commercial organizations with the participation of foreign and international organizations, is carried out by district (Novopolotsk city) executive committees, administrations of districts of the city of Vitebsk at the location of the legal entity and at the place of residence of the individual entrepreneur.

The Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee makes decisions on opening representative offices of foreign legal entities and other organizations duly registered in a foreign state, and branches of foreign legal entities located in the Vitebsk region.

Key areas of work on legal expertise:

• carrying out mandatory legal expertise of decisions of district, city Councils of Deputies, district, city executive committees of the Vitebsk region;
• preparation of conclusions containing a reasoned opinion on the compliance of a normative legal act with the requirements established by law and the admissibility of its inclusion in the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, and conclusions containing a reasoned opinion on the non-compliance of a normative legal act with the requirements established by law and the inadmissibility of its inclusion in the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus;
• transfer of normative legal acts that have undergone mandatory legal expertise and received a conclusion containing a reasoned opinion on the compliance of the normative legal act with the requirements established by law and the admissibility of its inclusion in the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus to the National Center for Legislation and Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus;
• conducting inspections of compliance in local Councils of Deputies, executive and administrative bodies of the basic territorial level with the established procedure for preparation, adoption (issuance), accounting, submission for mandatory legal expertise, and the legality of the application of their normative legal acts that have not undergone mandatory legal expertise;
• providing methodological assistance to local Councils of Deputies, executive and administrative bodies of the basic territorial level.

There are 46 norm-setting bodies operating in the Vitebsk region (23 district (city) councils, 23 district (city) executive committees).

In 2025, the state archives of the Vitebsk region carried out the following work on the acquisition, preservation, and use of documents.

The state archives of the region have microfilmed 62,132 units.

27,246 units of management documentation were received by the state archives from organizations.

The expert bodies of the main justice department and state archives approved inventories for management documentation in the amount of 20,035 units.

The state archives of the region fulfilled 7,577 requests of a socio-legal nature, and citizens' applications for the implementation of administrative procedures.

The creation of a user fund for paper-based documents through digitization amounts to 442,298 electronic pages.

34 document exhibitions were organized, including 17 on stands and 17 virtual ones. 59 articles prepared by employees of state archives were published in periodicals.

Specialists of the State Archive of the Vitebsk Region took part in 38 TV programs.

Within the framework of the "Archives to School" campaign, 206 events were held (overview and thematic excursions, archive lessons, lectures, practical seminars).

The State Archive of the Vitebsk Region prepared a collection of materials for the thematic lounges "Archival Importance: The History of Vitebsk Region in Personalities", jointly with the district administration and the Belarusian State Archive of Audiovisual Documents – the publication "Here the past does not leave, but becomes the foundation", dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the Zheleznodorozhny district of Vitebsk.

In the Vitebsk region, the registration of civil status acts is carried out by 26 civil registry offices of city and district executive committees, administrations of districts of the city of Vitebsk (hereinafter referred to as civil registry offices) and 194 city (cities of district subordination), town, and rural executive committees (hereinafter referred to as registry authorities).

The Main Department of Justice of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee in the sphere of civil status registration:

provides methodological guidance to the registry authorities on the registration of civil status acts;

conducts inspections of the activities of registry authorities in the registration of civil status acts;

exercises control over the inspections of the activities of city (cities of district subordination), town, and rural executive committees by civil registry offices regarding the registration of civil status acts;

participates in the work of attestation commissions during the attestation of heads of civil registry offices.

On the Work of Registry Authorities

By the Main Department of Justice of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee for the year 2025:

498 materials on change of surname, given name, patronymic were considered, on which decisions are made to permit or refuse permission for the change (refusal may be issued due to the absence of a valid reason, grounds for change, documents confirming the motives for change, unsubstantiated arguments of applicants, presence of an unexpunged or unremoved criminal record);

the issuance of 154 certificates containing information from civil status records, and notifications of the absence of civil status records were coordinated;

the activities of 16 registry authorities were inspected.

Civil Registry Offices perform the registration of civil status records, affix marks on identity documents concerning the registration of civil status records, including based on documents issued by competent authorities of foreign states, regarding divorce and deprivation of parental rights.

In 2025, the Civil Registry Offices of the Vitebsk region received over 71 thousand applications for the performance of administrative procedures.

The Civil Registry Offices organize and conduct solemn ceremonies for the registration of marriages and births, including according to individual scenarios developed considering citizens' wishes, with elements of Belarusian folk traditions.

Civil Registry Offices carry out off-site marriage registration ceremonies, and conduct anniversary ceremonies (silver, gold, ruby, pearl, coral, rose, porcelain, sapphire, crystal, diamond, wooden, emerald, iron, etc.).

The original copies of civil status records are stored in the Civil Registry Offices, the fund of which increases annually.

Based on the stored civil status records, Civil Registry Offices issue citizens with duplicate certificates of civil status registration, certificates containing information from civil status records, regarding civil status record registration, regarding the absence of marriage registration records, and notifications of the absence of civil status records.

Employees of the region's Civil Registry Offices constantly work to explain legislation to the public, including through mass media (print, radio, television) and Internet resources.

Various contests, campaigns, and events are organized and held, timed to coincide with significant dates (Constitution Day of the Republic of Belarus, Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus, Family Day, Youth Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, International Children's Day, World Children's Day, City Day, Lawyer's Day, etc.); visits are made to large families, foster families, and family-type homes.

The region's Civil Registry Offices practice holding solemn marriage registration ceremonies and honoring couples celebrating their wedding anniversary dates in the central squares of district centers as part of City Day celebrations.

Round-table meetings with students of educational institutions are popular, attended by psychologists, healthcare professionals, educators, etc.

There are 33 notarial offices operating in the Vitebsk region.

All notaries of the Vitebsk notarial district are members of the Belarusian Notary Chamber.

For the organization of notarial services for citizens and legal entities in the Vitebsk region, the organizational structure of the Belarusian Notary Chamber has been created – the Vitebsk Regional Notary Chamber (address: Vitebsk, Mark Shagal str., 4).

The powers of the main justice departments are defined in Article 22 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus of July 18, 2004 No. 305-Z "On Notary and Notarial Activities" (hereinafter referred to as the Law), in particular, the main justice departments:

·                    exercise control over the compliance of notaries and organizational structures of the Belarusian Notary Chamber with the legislation on notaries;

·                    coordinate the activities on compliance with the legislation on notaries by authorized officials, provide them with methodological assistance and develop measures aimed at improving law enforcement practice;

·                    register notarial offices in the manner established by the Ministry of Justice;

·                    in agreement with the territorial notary chamber, take measures to coordinate the activities of notaries carrying out notarial activities within the same notarial district, including distributing among them the responsibilities for processing inheritance rights after certain categories of testators whose place of opening of inheritance is located in this notarial district;

·                    in agreement with the territorial notary chamber, determine the notary to whom the conduct of an open inheritance case is transferred, in the event of receiving an application (applications) from all heirs who have accepted the inheritance to replace the notary;

·                    receive information and/or documents from territorial notary chambers, notaries, necessary for the exercise of powers provided for by legislative acts, subject to notary secrecy;

·                    in agreement with the territorial notary chamber, approve the procedure for transferring documents to the notary archive or to another notary in cases specified in part two of clause 2 of Article 16, parts one and four of clause 7 of Article 17 of the Law;

·                    participate in the development of draft normative legal acts in the field of regulating notary activities;

·                    assist territorial notary chambers in providing information and legal support for the activities of notaries, and in conducting events to improve the qualifications of notaries;

·                    exercise other powers related to the regulation of notary activities in accordance with the Law and other legislative acts.

In the Vitebsk region, enforcement authorities operate as follows: the enforcement department of the main justice department of the Vitebsk regional executive committee and 20 territorial enforcement departments (hereinafter referred to as departments).

Three inter-district enforcement departments have been created and are functioning out of the 20 territorial departments:

Polotsk inter-district department with jurisdiction within the city of Polotsk, Polotsk and Rossony districts of the Vitebsk region;

Glubokoye inter-district department with jurisdiction within the Glubokoye, Dokshitsy, Ushachi and Sharkovshchina districts of the Vitebsk region;

Verkhnedvinsk inter-district department with jurisdiction within the Verkhnedvinsk and Miory districts of the Vitebsk region.

The tasks of enforcement proceedings are to restore the violated rights and legitimate interests of citizens, including individual entrepreneurs, legal entities, organizations that are not legal entities, and to ensure the observance and protection of the interests of the state through the correct, complete and timely execution of enforcement documents.

Judicial officers continuously conduct explanatory work among the population on issues of compulsory execution of enforcement documents, including on the adoption of interim measures against debtors who evade debt repayment.

Appeals against decisions, actions (inaction) of a judicial officer are permitted in out-of-court and judicial proceedings, which is regulated by Chapter 12 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Enforcement Proceedings".