26 September, 2024                                                                                                            Bishkek

URGENT PRESS RELEASE

Judicial proceedings in defense of the constitutional right to freedom of association and the exercise by citizens of the right to participate in the management of the affairs of society and the State 

On 16 May 2024, the PA "Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan" appealed to the Constitutional Court of the KR with a petition to declare the new provisions introduced into the Law on Non-Profit Organizations on 2 April, 2024 unconstitutional. The organization draws the attention of the judicial body to the violation of human rights and restrictions on freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as the norms of international treaties, which the Kyrgyz Republic has undertaken to comply with. First of all, the constitutional right to freedom of association and the realization by citizens of the right to participate in the management of public and state affairs are ignored in the above mentioned new provisions.

Unfortunately, the panel of judges (consisting of three judges) of the Constitutional Court of the KR adopted a ruling refusing to accept the organization's petition for proceedings. We believe that this decision was unjustified and illegal. Thus, when adopting the ruling we are challenging, the panel of judges, considering the specified exhaustive list of grounds, refers to paragraph 1, Part 3, Article 30 of the Law on the Constitutional Court of the KR, which concerns the form and content of the appeal.

It should be noted that the requirements for the form and content of the appeal are defined in article 27 of the Law. However, in the contested ruling, the panel of judges did not indicate a violation and non-compliance with the requirements of article 27 of the Law. The absence of an indication of violation of these requirements confirms that we complied with them when submitting the petition to the Constitutional Court of the Kyrgyz Republic. And the reference of the panel of judges to paragraph 1, part 3, Article 30 of the Law has no legal justification as to why the form and content of our petition does not meet the requirements of the Law. At the same time, any other legal arguments on the basis of which the panel of judges would have the authority to refuse to accept our appeal for proceedings are not given in the contested ruling. According to part 10 of Article 49 of the Law, the act (ruling) of the Constitutional Court must be reasoned and motivated.

Therefore, on 06 August 2024, the organization filed a complaint against the specified ruling of the board of judges of the Constitutional Court of the KR. We are currently awaiting consideration and resolution of our complaint (according to the Rules of the Constitutional Court of the KR, the term of consideration is 30 days).

However, as we were previously informed, the session of the Constitutional Court to consider our complaint will be held without our participation and we will not have an opportunity to present our arguments before the judges (9 judges). We consider this to be a disregard for the principles of transparency, publicity and openness of the judicial system of Kyrgyzstan, as well as the adversarial principle and the principle of equality of the parties in constitutional proceedings.

To date, experts and lawyers of the PA "Bir Duino- Kyrgyzstan", having studied the Resolution, come to the conclusion that when it was issued by the Cabinet of Ministers, the following normative legal acts were violated and not complied with:

1)     The Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic;

2)     Protecting and expanding civic space according to the OHCHR;

3)      The Kyrgyz Republic does not fulfill its obligations to implement the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the right of citizens to freedom of association, to which it acceded on 12 January, 1994;  

4)     OSCE/ODIHR Guidelines on Freedom of Association;

5)     The Law on Regulatory Legal Acts of the Kyrgyz Republic;

6)      RESOLUTION OF THE CABINET OF MINISTERS OF THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC No. 655-r dated 28 November 2022 (as amended by the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the KR No. 428-r dated 17 July 2023);

7)     The Law on Non-Profit Organizations.

Based on the circumstances, we state that the Cabinet of Ministers of the KR in this case exceeded its powers and violated paragraph 6 of Article 2 of the Law on Normative Legal Acts of the Kyrgyz Republic. In this regard, on 26 September 2024, the PA "Bir Duino-KR" filed an application with the Bishkek Administrative Court to declare the above Resolution null and void (legal term).

We hope for and believe in the implementation and provision of our constitutional guarantees established by the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, according to which everyone is guaranteed judicial protection of his/her rights and freedoms provided for by the Constitution, laws, international treaties to which the Kyrgyz Republic is a party, generally recognized principles and norms of international law.

We believe that the complaint of the PA “Bir Duino - Kyrgyzstan” will be considered in the Constitutional Court of the Kyrgyz Republic on the basis of the principles of justice, democracy, equality of parties, legality, priority and respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens, supremacy of the Constitution of the KR and international obligations, humanism, with proper preparation of an open judicial process.

Sincerely,

Team, partners and leading experts of the PA "Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan"

Should you have any questions, please, feel free to contact the lawyer, Timur Arykov via mobile: 0770 341 720 or e-mail: birduinokyrgyzstan@gmail.com