The Notary Chamber of Belarus

The body of notarial self-government in the Republic of Belarus is the Notary Chamber of Belarus, a non-profit organization based on mandatory membership of notaries.

The Notary Chamber of Belarus is a legal entity and acts on the basis of the Charter, which is approved by the general assembly (assembly of authorized representatives) of the Notary Chamber of Belarus.

The Notary Chamber of Belarus has the following functions:

• Ensuring accessibility and quality of notarial services to citizens and legal entities throughout the territory of the Republic of Belarus;
• Organization of proper notarial services for citizens and legal entities in the territory of the regions and the city of Minsk;
• Maintenance of safety and the account of documents of notarial archives, taking measures on the organization of their activity;
• Monitoring of compliance by notaries with notarial legislation;
• Methodical guidance and coordination of the activities of notaries by ensuring the unity of law enforcement practice in notarial activities;
• Material, technical, financial and personnel support of notary offices, notarial archives;
• Organization of raising the level of qualification of notaries, other persons ensuring the activity of notaries, employees of the Notary Chamber of Belarus, territorial notary chambers;
• Maintenance of functioning of information systems, technologies and resources of activity of notaries, ensuring interaction of notaries among themselves, as well as with state bodies and organizations with the help of these resources. (From January 1, 2017, notaries of the Republic of Belarus make entries of all notarial acts in the Unified National Register of Notarial Acts, and of all inheritance cases in the Unified National Register of Inheritance Cases);
• Participation in drafting normative legal acts on issues related to notarial system and notarial activities in the Republic of Belarus;
• Organization of professional internship for persons wishing to perform notarial activities

The highest body of the Notary Chamber of Belarus is the General Assembly (assembly of authorized representatives). During the period between meetings of the General Assembly management of the Notary Chamber of Belarus provides a collegial executive body - the Board of the Notary Chamber of Belarus, whose members are elected by the General Assembly from among the members of the Notary Chamber of Belarus, and the Chairman of the Notary Chamber of Belarus, who is also elected by the General Assembly.

To perform the tasks of the Notary Chamber in the areas of the Republic of Belarus and Minsk the territorial notary chambers are organized. Territorial notary chambers act on the basis of the legislation, the Charter of the Notary Chamber of Belarus and their regulations approved by the General Meeting. The territorial notary chambers are in the form of separate subdivisions, endowed with legal personality and must be registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus.

In order to implement the powers of the self-governing bodies, several specialized commissions have been set up in the Notary Chamber of Belarus:
Disciplinary commission of the Notary Chamber of Belarus and disciplinary commissions of territorial notarial chambers;
Methodical commission;
Audit commission;
Commission on informatization;
Commission for monitoring the compliance of notary legislation by notaries.

The internal control body of the Notary Chamber of Belarus (the audit body of the Notary Chamber of Belarus ) is the Audit Commission of the Notary Chamber of Belarus, elected by the General Assembly of at least 7 persons for a period of four years. The Audit Commission of the Notary Chamber of Belarus performs an internal audit of the financial and economic activities of the Notary Chamber of Belarus, as well as internal control over the compliance of the activities of the Notary Chamber of Belarus with the legislation and the Charter.

The Audit commission is the body of the Notary Chamber of Belarus which is exercising internal control, compliance of the Notary Chamber to Belarusian law and the Charter of the Notary Chamber of Belarus and the audit of financial and economic activities of the Notary Chamber of Belarus.

In the Notary Chamber of Belarus and its territorial subdivisions Disciplinary Commission are created. Authority of the members of the Disciplinary Commissions includes issues of disciplinary responsibility of members of the Notary Chamber of Belarus.

The Advisory and methodical council is created under the Notary Chamber of Belarus.

The main goal of the advisory and methodical council is to develop recommendations on the formation of common approaches in the practice of applying legislation in notarial activities performed by notaries.

Along with the representatives of the Notary Chamber of Belarus, the advisory and methodical council includes representatives of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus, the State Property Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the National Center for Legislation and Legal Studies of the Republic of Belarus, the judiciary, and law scholars from many universities throughout the country.

The advisory and methodical council analyzes the activity of the notarial system and develops proposals for solving urgent problems of the system. Among the directions of its activity are discussion of possible directions of scientific research in the notarial sphere, discussion of the results of scientific research and developments of interest to the Notary Chamber of Belarus.

For centralized storage and preservation of notary documents formed as a result of notarial activities and which are the part of the National archival Fund of the Republic of Belarus, the Notary Chamber of Belarus organizes notarial archives, which are also included in the structure of the Notary Chamber of Belarus.