Kazakhstan Constitutional Court accepts review of lifetime professional ban

September 1, 2026 at 02:25 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Kazakhstan's Constitutional Court has accepted for review a challenge to Article 50, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, which allows a lifetime ban on holding certain positions or engaging in certain activities. The applicant argues the ban violates principles of justice, proportionality, and individualization of criminal responsibility when applied to non-officials. The court will publish its decision on its official website and Telegram channel.

Key Facts

The Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan accepted for review a challenge to Article 50, Part 1 of the Criminal Code on September 2, 2026.
The challenged provision allows a lifetime ban on holding certain positions or engaging in certain activities.
The applicant argues the ban violates principles of justice, proportionality, and individualization of responsibility when applied to persons who are not civil servants or special subjects of corruption offenses.
The court will announce its decision on its official website and Telegram channel.
On August 25, the Adil Soz International Foundation for Freedom of Speech asked the Supreme Court to set clear limits on professional bans for journalists.

The Constitutional Challenge

The Constitutional Court of Kazakhstan accepted for review a challenge to Article 50, Part 1 of the Criminal Code on September 2, 2026. The provision allows a lifetime ban on holding certain positions or engaging in certain activities. The applicant argues that applying the ban to a person who is not a civil servant and does not possess the characteristics of a special subject of a corruption offense may violate principles of justice, proportionality, and individualization of criminal responsibility. The applicant also points to a possible violation of labor rights and the right to freely choose a profession. Acceptance of the case does not mean the norm has been declared unconstitutional; a final decision will be made after consideration.

Journalist Cases Context

The review comes amid debate over the application of the norm to journalists. On August 25, the Adil Soz International Foundation for Freedom of Speech asked the Supreme Court to establish clear limits on professional bans for journalists. According to Adil Soz, recent months have seen professional bans imposed on KazTAG owner Aset Mataev, chief editor Amir Kasenov, journalist Alexandra Alekhova, and on August 18 former Orda.kz chief editor Gulnara Bazhkenova. The Constitutional Court's case is formally separate from Adil Soz's appeal, which was filed with the Supreme Court, but both concern the boundaries of the same Criminal Code article and appeared within a week of each other.

Court's Previous Labor Rulings

The Constitutional Court previously protected citizens' rights to reinstatement at work and review of court decisions. The court also recognized as unfair one of the rules on dismissal, a decision that may significantly affect labor rights protection in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is set to change the rules for dismissal of state employees.