The Constitutional Court has given interpretation to the regulation on the procedure for organising peaceful assemblies

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The Constitutional Court had reviewed the constitutionality of subparagraphs 2) and 3) of the first part of paragraph 1 of paragraph 1 of Article 11 and subparagraph 10) of paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the procedure for organising and holding peaceful assemblies in the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

The grounds of the appeal:

The reason for the inspection was the appeal on the refusal of the Astana City Akimat to organise a peaceful assembly at the place and time proposed by the organiser. According to the subject of the complaint, the contested provisions of the law allow local executive bodies to arbitrarily refuse to organise a peaceful assembly without first offering the organiser an alternative proposal to change the place and/or time, which violates the principle of proportionality of the refusal and the degree of possible threat.

Position of the Constitutional Court:

The right to peaceful assembly is not absolute and may be legally conditioned for the purposes specified in the Constitution. In each specific case, the decision to refuse to hold a peaceful assembly should be based on a thorough analysis of all available circumstances and possible risks, taking into account the objectives, relevance, public importance and scale of the events, as well as other objective factors. Information on the occupancy of specialized venues posted on the Internet resource of the local executive body should give citizens a clear idea, at a minimum, of the planned events, the place and date of their holding, the time of beginning and end, and the expected number of participants. The decision to refuse to hold peaceful assemblies, in turn, must be justified and motivated and can be appealed, which is expressly provided for in the Law.

The Constitutional Court's decisions:

The Constitutional Court, as a result of the review, recognized subparagraphs 2) and 3) of the first part of paragraph 1 of Article 11, paragraph 1 of the Law as complying with the Constitution. At the same time, with regard to subparagraph 10) of paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Law, the Constitutional Court gave a clarifying interpretation, according to which the proposal of the local executive body to change the place and (or) time of a peaceful assembly before the adoption of a decision on refusal is mandatory.

The full text of the regulatory resolution of the CC can be found at the following link https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/ksrk/documents/details/783466?lang=ru

 

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