Empowering the people: MEPs hear about constitutional transformation in Kazakhstan and Mongolia

Two of Asia’s largest countries, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, have recently embarked on major constitutional reforms. A joint event at the European Parliament gave MEPs the chance to hear how both countries are strengthening the voice of the people in their political processes, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

“Constitutional reform can be difficult, it can be slow”, observed the European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore, reflecting on the human rights reforms that came only slowly and after a long struggle in his native Ireland. He was one of the keynote speakers at a European Parliament Round Table that discussed how the pace of change in both Kazakhstan and Mongolia has accelerated.

The Ambassador of Kazakhstan, Margulan Baimukhan, described how “a systematic transformation of the political system has been carried out, creating a new, more democratic model of government”. The changes that have taken place in little more than a year have strengthened the lower house of parliament, the Mazhilis, as well as limiting the President to a single seven-year term. There have also been important reforms to local government.

These changes have already commanded international attention, as they were endorsed in a referendum and in multi-party elections. The Ambassador stressed the importance of Kazakhstan’s “strong dialogue with the European Parliament, crucial for us in terms of exchanging best law-making practices”. The Round Table gave MEPs the opportunity to learn more about another major aspect of the reforms, the establishment of a Constitutional Court.

Its chair, Elvira Azimova, had travelled to Brussels to explain the role of her court. “The newly established Constitutional Court is the most important institution in the country… the main foundation of the human rights protection system”, she asserted. It is a body transformed from the previous Constitutional Council and “its broadened jurisdiction … signifies the humanistic and human rights-focused approach of the constitutional reform in Kazakhstan”.

Citizens will be able to ask it to decide if regulatory legal acts, directly affecting the rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution, are constitutionally valid. In particular, the Commissioner for Human Rights, who now enjoys constitutional guarantees and immunities, has the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

In the case of Mongolia, an important reform is to increase the size of the parliament, which with just 76 members is one of the smallest in the world. The Round Table considered a paper from one of those members, Tserenjamts Munkhtsetseg, who chairs the Mongolian-European Inter-parliamentary meeting.

She argued that more members would increase the ability of the parliament to effectively scrutinise legislation and policy but also decrease the amount of power held by each individual members. She saw an increase to 152 members as encouraging the development of political parties, offering different options to the voters.

Eamon Gilmore stressed that respect for human rights is founded to European foreign policy. He saw accountable and transparent institutions as a cornerstone of a constitution that respected those rights. “We hold each other accountable for those values”, he said.

Welcoming the two countries’ representatives to the European Parliament, Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz MEP described Kazakhstan and Mongolia as both “continuously improving their constitutions, democratic standards and democratic freedoms”. Salvatore De Meo MEP, who chairs the parliament’s committee on constitutional affairs, said Kazakhstan is a very important partner for the EU. “We have taken the relationship to the next level.”

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