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Nineteen years since adoption of State Sovereignty Declaration

It is 19 years on Monday since the Supreme Soviet, the legislature of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR), adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the BSSR to assert the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

Adopted on July 27, 1990, some two weeks after Russia declared its own sovereignty, the Declaration started the process to Belarus' eventual independence in August 1991. Until 1996, the 27th of July was celebrated as Independence Day in Belarus.

On August 25, 1991, the Declaration was given the status of a constitutional law, which was used as the basis for amendments to the 1978 BSSR constitution.

On September 19, 1991, the Supreme Soviet adopted a law that changed the name of the country for the Republic of Belarus and introduced new state symbols – the white-red-white flag and the Pahonya emblem.

At their meeting at the Belarusian government residence in Viskuli, Brest region, on December 8, 1991, the leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine – Stanislaw Shushkevich, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kravchuk – denounced the 1922 Treaty on the Formation of the USSR.

The constitution of the Republic of Belarus was adopted on March 15, 1994.

As a result of a May 1995 national referendum, initiated by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who was elected president in the summer of 1994, the new state symbols were replaced with Soviet-style ones and Russian was given the status of a state language.

The constitution currently in force in Belarus was adopted through another Lukashenka-initiated referendum in 1996. Although the 1996 constitution is represented by government officials as an amended version of the 1994 constitution, it is in fact a different constitution. The 1996 constitution sealed Mr. Lukashenka`s monopolization of state power, giving him quasi-dictatorial powers. Although formally the separation of powers still exists in Belarus, under the 1996 constitution, the president overwhelmingly dominates the other branches of government.

If the 1994 constitution had been in force in the country, the “Belarusians would have had a different life,” said Dr. Shushkevich, who was first deputy chairman of the BSSR Supreme Soviet when the Declaration of State Sovereignty was adopted.

“Unfortunately, the constitution was changed towards the restoration of the Soviet system,” Dr. Shushkevich told BelaPAN. “At present people in Belarus cannot feel themselves as residents of a free and democratic country. Their rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of association are restricted. The change of the constitution in fact led to the loss of freedom.”

The adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty became “the first step in making Belarus an independent state and re-establishing the 1000-year-long Belarusian statehood,” said Aleh Trusaw, chairman of the Francisak Skaryna Belarusian Language Association who was a member of the Supreme Soviet in 1991. “In these 19 years, Belarus has evolved from the BSSR, which was not known in the world, to an independent state well-known worldwide, including thanks to its leader,” Mr. Trusaw told BelaPAN. “The very fact that Belarus is recognized throughout the world suggests that the Belarusian people have a chance of having a free, decent and happy life.”