The Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced at a joint session of the Chambers of the Parliament the Message «On the state of constitutional legality in the Republic of Kazakhstan»
On June 21, 2021, the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced at a joint session of the Chambers of the Parliament the Message "On the state of constitutional legality in the Republic of Kazakhstan".
The Message contains the following proposals of the Constitutional Council:
* Taking into account the fundamental nature of the constitutional right of everyone to life, complete the work on the harmonization of the Criminal Code and other legislative acts with the provisions of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (on the abolition of the death penalty).
* Continue to strengthen the constitutional guarantees of the rights of participants in criminal proceedings, including pre-trial investigation and judicial review.
* About persons with disabilities, make maximum use of the set of norms and standards established in international practice, which are based on the principle of expanding the content of their rights and a special form of their implementation. They must guarantee respect for human dignity, equal social opportunities, access to special services, infrastructure, and proper integration into all spheres of society.
* Measures of state coercion, as well as the prevention of offenses, must comply with the principles of justice and proportionality of responsibility, as well as the values protected by the Basic Law, the highest of which are the person, his life, rights, and freedoms.
In this regard:
- in the criminal and administrative legislation to create additional conditions for the individualization and differentiation of responsibility depending on the degree of public danger of the act, the nature and size of the damage caused, the identity of the offender, and other factors;
- complete the implementation of new approaches to the criteria for the classification of criminal offenses; - clearly distinguish between criminal offenses and administrative offenses, codifying them in the future in one legislative act;
- consider the possibility of using the institution of exemption from administrative responsibility based on an amnesty act.
* According to article 39 of the Constitution, human and civil rights and freedoms may be restricted only by laws and only to the extent necessary for the protection of the constitutional order, public order, human rights and freedoms, and public health and morals. The restriction of rights and freedoms must be adequate for legally justified purposes, proportionate, and necessary for the protection of constitutionally significant values. In this regard, to rethink the general legal consequences of a criminal record and the termination of criminal prosecution on non-rehabilitating grounds.
* The establishment of a ban on the application of enforcement documents for the collection of residential premises, which is the only suitable place for permanent residence for a citizen and his family members.
* In connection with the increasing scale of digitalization and the actualization of the problem of personal data protection, to regulate these issues and measures to ensure digital security in one legislative act.
* Within the framework of the draft law on the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Kazakhstan, one of the important powers of the Ombudsman is to initiate an appeal to the Constitutional Council through the court with the question of checking the constitutionality of a law or other normative legal act.
* To protect the institutions of motherhood and childhood, take additional legislative measures as previously recommended by the Constitutional Council.
* To consider the creation of an effective mechanism for the implementation of the decisions of the UN treaty bodies, the competence of which is recognized by the Republic of Kazakhstan.
* According to article 17, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, no one shall be subjected to torture, violence, or other cruel or degrading treatment or punishment.
In this regard, to review some of the requirements and rules governing the internal order in the institutions of the penitentiary system, which are still permeated with the stereotypes of experience.
In general, the Constitutional Council in its Message once again stressed that the further strengthening of Kazakhstan's Independence should be aimed at increasing the well-being of citizens, improving the quality of life, the effectiveness of state institutions, ensuring the rule of law, a developed civil society and the country's high authority on the world stage.