Erkinbek MAMYROV
President
Constitutional Chamber
Supreme Court
Kyrgyz Republic
The Constitutional Chamber of the Kyrgyz Republic as a
Guardian of fundamental rights
Ladies and gentlemen!
Dear Zuhtu ARSLAN,
First of all, allow me to greet all participants of the conference and to congratulate the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey on its 55th anniversary on behalf of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic. I would like to express gratitude to the organizers for the invitation to participate and the opportunity to speak at such a significant event, which is an important platform for the exchange of experience between the bodies of constitutional control.
Undoubtedly, the theme of the conference is very relevant as ensuring constitutional legitimacy is the most important requirement for existence and development of any democratic constitutional state where human rights and freedoms are recognized and guaranteed.
History has shown that declaration of the human and citizen rights and freedoms without a clear legal mechanism for their provision and protection does not give these rights and freedoms opportunities for implementation.
The Kyrgyz Republic is not an exception and recognizes the need to create and strengthen a full-fledged effective system for the protection of human and citizen’s rights.
The Constitutional Chamber is one of the institutions that protects human rights and freedoms of citizens through ensuring constitutional justice.
The protection of human rights and freedoms by the Constitutional Chamber is
implemented through normative control. We assess compliance of the disputed norm
with the legal act of the highest legal force – the Constitution.
The Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic grants everyone the right to challenge the
constitutionality of the law or any other normative legal act if they consider that those
acts violate the rights and freedoms recognized by the Constitution. However, the
Constitution does not connect this action with the direct violation of the rights and
freedoms of the treated subject. This type of constitutional control, called abstract,
pursues the goal of ensuring compliance with the Constitution and its provisions
governing human rights and freedoms in the process of adopting normative and legal acts
by the rulemaking body.
Undoubtedly, this abstract type of control has given more citizens the opportunity
to protect their rights through constitutional justice. An analysis of appeals submitted to
the Constitutional Chamber shows that the number of applications from citizens whose
rights were not directly affected by the disputed acts is half of all the appeals to the
Constitutional Chamber.
The review of the decisions made by the Constitutional Chamber shows that most
of the cases examined since its foundation are related to the protection of fundamental
human rights and freedoms.
In particular, there are decisions aimed at protecting the right to freedom of
religion. The Constitutional Chamber expressed its legal position on this issue and
pointed out that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,
and a person or group of persons professing a particular religion should not be in a
preferential position in comparison with representatives of another religion.
While defending the right to freedom of expression, freedom of speech and free
press, the Constitutional Chamber pointed out that the Constitution of the Kyrgyz
Republic considers the right to freedom of expression, freedom of speech and free press a
single and inseparable right to think freely and express oneself in words without fear of
prosecution by the state. At the same time noting that such a right should be implemented
responsibly and to the extent when it does not violate the rights and freedoms of other
persons established by the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic.
On the right to freedom of association, the Constitutional Chamber indicated that it
includes the right to become a member of an association without obtaining any special
permission from the state body.
The peculiarity of the right to association includes not only the complete freedom
of expression of the will of citizens to unite, but also such inalienable components as the
opportunity to independently define goals and objectives, work out ways to solve them,
and many other signs based on independency.
On several aspects of the right to judicial protection, the Constitutional Chamber
has repeatedly stated its position. In particular, in one of its decisions it was stated that
persons in relation to which criminal cases were initiated have the right to appeal against
the investigator’s decision to initiate criminal proceedings. At the same time, the court
must find out, first of all, whether the investigator has followed the procedure for issuing
the decision, whether there are any grounds for initiating a criminal case, and if there are
no circumstances precluding the proceedings.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, if the Constitutional Chamber
recognizes the norms of the law as unconstitutional, the actions that are based on it and
violate the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens cease.
We understand that ensuring the supremacy of the Constitution and its direct
effectiveness on the country’s territory depends to a large extent on the quality of
execution following the decisions made by the Constitutional Chamber, especially the
decisions that indicate the presence of legal gaps in legal regulation. The first positive
trend is that legislators and law enforcements take into account the decisions made by the
Constitutional Chamber. This has a positive effect on the level of constitutional legality
in the country and the provision of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the
Constitution.
In conclusion, I would like to restate that the protection and observance of the
basic rights of citizens is one of the most important duties of the state in which the
Constitutional Chamber plays a significant role.
Thank you for your attention.
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