Margatova A. S.
3nd
year student
of
the Faculty of International Relations
Al-Farabi
Kazakh National University
Scientific
adviser- Tusupova A.J.
Associate
Professor of the Chair of International Law of Al-Farabi Kazakh National
University
The constitutional
foundations of the rights of citizens of Kazakhstan to the free legal
assistance
Access capability to the free legal assistance
is an inherent part of ensuring the access to the fair justice guaranteed by
the international obligations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as
enshrined in its Constitution. Article 14.3 (d) of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2005,
provides that everyone has the right to defense.
Article 13 of the Constitution of the Republic
of Kazakhstan proclaims the right of everyone to free legal assistance in the
cases provided by law. This applies to all individuals and, in particular,
legal entities. Undoubtedly, the free legal aid is provided, while the quality
of its qualification is still open to question. After all, not all lawyers are
consumed with desire to work with total efficiency for a very small
remuneration from the state budget, which no doubt affects the quality of legal
assistance. [1]
The Concept of Legal Policy of Kazakhstan for
the period from 2010 to 2020 is subject to the necessity to improve the system
of providing legal assistance to low-income individuals, which are aplenty in
our country, especially in regions with low economic indicators, according to
the the estimations of financial analysts. [2]
As the proverb says, "we are not rich
enough to buy cheap things." The question is about quality. Therefore, it
is necessary to determine on the legislative level lawyers providing free legal
aid not only for a fixed payment, but also qualified, because the quality is
above all in this case. And for this they need to have a financial interest
that, in turn, requires the establishment of a quality control system. As far
as there is no one to create such structures and, in fact, it will not bring
any profit to the state, the scenario providing subsidized legal aid by lawyers
falls away.
At the present time, the cost of legal
consultations in Kazakhstan ranges from 10 000 to 70 000 tenge. Considering the
actual low monthly average wage of the population in our country, these
services are quite expensive. In consequence of which the need to develop the
rendering of subsidized legal aid provided from the national budget is clear.
Thus, having conducted a sociological survey of
the population of Kazakhstan, it was revealed that currently it is increasingly
required to obtain legal advice on relevant legal issues.
Thus, in accordance with the law of the Republic
of Kazakhstan "On state-guaranteed legal aid" from 3 July 2013, legal
advice is the provision of advice and references on legal issues in oral or
written form. [3]
It is impossible not to emphasize that to
provide legal assistance properly, the attraction of qualified professionals is
one of the necessary conditions. But the question still remains - who will do
it. Public reception? Law office? The first is unlikely to be included in the
"long history". The second is profitably to transform the free
assistance into paid consultation. In our opinion, one of the outcome of this
situation is to attract the students or the jurisprudence faculty and of the
specialty "International Law" to provide subsidized legal advice.
And we are ready to provide free legal advice
under the supervision of independent private entities, including qualified
profesors themselves. What is the use for the state? First of all, it is
legally competent people. The prospects of the development of this project are
obvious because the students themselves have a huge practice. Experience in
this area has been already done. The first-year students of KazNU do their
practical work in the public reception of the deputy of Almaty Maslikhat,
Kotenyov A.E., where citizens come to receive the competent legal aid. In most
cases, the older generation apply to us
who is unable to pay for services provided by paid legal offices.
"Unfortunately, the legal literacy of the
population of our city is very low and the nomber of unscrupulous lawyers
increases more and more! People just need a good and qualitative legal advice,
and the students are our future lawyers who is ready to get real practice and
application of their knowledge, "- the deputy Kotenyov A.E. mentioned. [4]
In confirmation of the relevance of this issue
some statistics has been made up on incoming requests received by the public
reception maslihat, the total number of which has been more than 80 people.
Analyzing the results, it was found that citizens expect to receive legal
advice in the field of civil, housing, administrative law and law of domestic
relations. Specifically in the field of civil law such kinds of application
have been prevailed: the preparation of acts of civil status, compensation for
property damage, protection of the consumer rights; issues related to the
road-transport sector, transactions and representation. Concerning
administrative law, issues on documents drafting (complaints, letters, statements), resolution of disputes with
insurance companies, appeal of the decisions of officials have been predominated.
To summarize, we note that by choosing this
topic for research, we have been guided, first of all, by its relevance. As
future professionals in the field of law, we want to contribute to the
development of the project to provide free legal advice. It is obvious that the
practice for the students is of paramount importance, as its objectives are to
improve the quality of future professionals, consolidation of acquired
knowledge on legal subjects, checking an ability of students to use legislation,
strengthening the link between practical and theoretical activity.
List of
resources used:
1.
The Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated August 30, 1995
2.
The newspaper "Kazakhstan truth" of 27.08.2009 was, № 205 (25949);
"Egemen Kazakhstan" in 2009 zhyl, 28tamyz, N 281-283 (25680); SAPP of
the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2009, № 35, Art. 331
3.
Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On state-guaranteed legal aid"
from July 3, 2013