Members of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly passed the second reading of the bill on archives and records management
On 25 March 2022, at the eighth session of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus of the seventh convocation the draft law “On Amendments to the Law “On Archives and Records Management in the Republic of Belarus” was passed in the second reading. The draft law was submitted to the House of Representatives by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus on November 26, 2021, and passed in the first reading on December 21, 2021.
The draft law updates the conceptual apparatus: some terms and their definitions are clarified, new terms are introduced (scientific and technical processing of documents, a copy of an archive document on the rights of the original). The law establishes a rule according to which a person appointed by the head of the organization shall be responsible for the reception, storage, accounting and use of archival documents in organizations which do not provide for the establishment of staff positions for archivists.
The composition of the state part of the National Archival Fonds of the Republic of Belarus and the time periods for temporary storage of documents have been specified (100 years for civil status records and 55 years for personnel records). In case of seizure of archival and personnel records, their return is mandatory. Documents in electronic form, including electronic documents, of the state part of the National Archival Fonds upon expiration of the established periods of temporary storage must be transferred from the information system of the archive of a state body or other institution for permanent storage in the state archive through the information system of the archive of electronic documents of the National Archival Fonds of the Republic of Belarus .
It is established that the documents of the non-state part of the National Archival Fonds may be kept on a paid basis not only in state archives, territorial (city or district) archives, but also in other organizations on the basis of a storage agreement or transferred free of charge to state archives on the basis of an agreement providing for the transfer of ownership of the documents to the state. State bodies and other organizations that are sources of acquisition for state archives have the right to carry out scientific and technical processing of their documents independently or to use the appropriate service of state archival institutions.
The information has been prepared on the basis of the materials of BELTA.