Information regarding the regulatory resolution of the Constitutional Court
(№ 30 of 25 September 2023)
The Constitutional Court considered the appeal of a citizen to verify the constitutionality of Article 13 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan of 18 December 1992 ‘On social protection of citizens affected by nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site’ (hereinafter - the Law).
This Article provides for measures of social support for citizens affected by nuclear tests and residing in territories affected by radioactive fallout in the form of a supplement to pension, additional remuneration for labour and additional paid leave.
The subject of the appeal previously resided in one of these territories and is a person affected by the trials, which is confirmed by a certificate issued to him. Currently, he does not reside in the said territory and considers that Article 13 of the Act is not in conformity with Article 14 of the Constitution on equality of all before the law and the courts and non-discrimination.
This article of the Law was applied by the courts in rejecting the claims of the subject of the appeal.
Similar issues to the subject of the appeal were considered earlier by the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan in relation to another ecological disaster zone in the Aral Sea region.
The Constitutional Court agrees with the positions of the Constitutional Council expressed in this judgement with regard to the fact that the level of social protection of persons living in an ecological disaster zone is different, and persons who have left it does not entail discrimination against the latter on the basis of place of residence, since the socially conditioned approach to the protection of these categories of the population does not limit (or diminish) their constitutional rights. Affected citizens living in the zones specified in the Act and those living outside them have been and are at different times in different degrees in different conditions, which predisposes them to different treatment. Not every difference in treatment is discriminatory.
The Constitutional Court recognised Article 13 of the Act as being in conformity with the Constitution and recommended that the Government take measures to improve legislation on social protection of citizens affected by nuclear tests.