April 4, 2024
On April 3, 2024 the First Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at its plenary session, delivered Decision No. 4-r (І)/2024 in the case upon the constitutional complaints of Serhii Vodolahin and Volodymyr Nekrylov concerning the compliance of paragraph 2 of Section I of the Law of Ukraine «On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chornobyl Disaster” regarding the increase of the level of pensions for certain categories of persons» No. 1584–IX dated June 29, 2021 (hereinafter, “Law No. 1584”), Article 54.3 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chornobyl Disaster” No. 796-XIII dated February 28, 1991 (hereinafter, “Law No. 796”) with the Constitution of Ukraine.
These provisions establish minimum amounts of disability pension as a result of an injury or illness caused by the Chornobyl disaster.
The applicants impugned Article 54.3 of Law No. 796, as amended, which provides that “in all cases, the amounts of pension for disability resulting from injury or illness caused by the Chornobyl disaster may not be lower than: for disability group I – 6,000 UAH; for disability group II – 4,800 UAH; for disability group III – 3,700 UAH; for children with disabilities – 3,700 UAH”.
In resolving the issue raised in the constitutional complaints regarding the constitutionality of Article 54.3 of Law No. 796, the Court proceeds from the following.
According to the legal position of the Court, the Constitution and laws of Ukraine distinguish certain categories of Ukrainian citizens who require additional guarantees of social protection from the state (sentence 1 of passage 14 of paragraph 5 of the reasoning part of the Decision No. 8-rp/2005 dated October 11, 2005).
For Ukrainian citizens who suffered from the Chornobyl disaster, special guarantees of social protection and compensation for damages to their lives and health are established at the constitutional level.
Article 54 of Law No. 796 regulates the types and procedure for granting state pensions to persons classified as category 1 and in connection with the loss of a breadwinner as a result of the Chornobyl disaster.
The Court points out that the constitutional and legal status of respective category of citizens is due to the specific nature of the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster, the overcoming of which requires the state to strictly fulfil its obligation to compensate for physical, moral and material losses to persons who have been granted a pension due to disability resulting from injury or illness caused by the Chornobyl disaster.
In the Decision, the Court underscores that “the legislator's separation from the category of persons affected by the Chornobyl disaster, of persons in need of special treatment by the state – persons with disabilities from among the participants of the liquidation of the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster, as well as from among the persons affected by the Chornobyl disaster – and the introduction of a state pension for this category of persons and the establishment of its minimum amounts at the level of law should be considered as a manifestation of support measures by the state for these persons” [passage 8 of subparagraph 2.5.1 of subparagraph 2.5 of paragraph 2 of the reasoning part of the Decision No. 1-r(II)/2021dated April 7, 2021].
In the Decision, the Court concludes that the pension due to disability resulting from injury or illness caused by the Chornobyl disaster is granted to persons based on the peremptory requirements of the Constitution of Ukraine as a special form of compensation for damages caused to them and cannot be cancelled or reduced, made dependent on available financial resources or any other circumstances. Cancellation, restriction or reduction of pensions for persons with disabilities resulting from injury or illness caused by the Chornobyl disaster will violate the essence of the constitutional foundations that recognise human life and health as the highest social values.
Given the special constitutional and legal status of persons affected by the Chornobyl disaster, “the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, when adopting laws, must guarantee the adequate protection and implementation of human rights and freedoms, that is one of the conditions for ensuring human dignity as an inherent value” [sentence 5 of passage 2 of subparagraph 2.1 of paragraph 2 of the reasoning part of the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine No. 6-r(II)/2021 dated September 16, 2021].
The Court, based on the substantive analysis of Articles 3, 16, 50 of the Constitution of Ukraine, Decision No. 1-r(II)/2021 dated April 7, 2021 states that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, by Law No. 1584, re-introduced legal regulation with the same drawback, namely, determined in Article 54.3 of Law No. 796 the minimum amounts of the state pension due to disability resulting from injury or illness, and pensions in connection with the loss of a breadwinner as a result of the Chornobyl disaster in amounts lower than those guaranteed by Law No. 796 in the wording of the Law of Ukraine «On Amendments and Additions to the Law of Ukraine “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chornobyl Disaster» No. 230/96-VR dated June 6, 1996.
Therefore, “by re-introducing legal regulation with the same drawback, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine violated the requirement of Article 8.2 of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine, according to which laws and other normative legal acts are adopted on the basis of the Constitution of Ukraine and must comply with it” (passage 4 of subparagraph 2.3 of paragraph 2 of the reasoning part of the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine No. 13-r /2018 dated December 20, 2018).
Thus, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine concluded that Article 54.3 of Law No. 796 once again violates the adequate level of social protection and the fundamental obligation of the state to compensate for the damages caused to persons affected by the Chornobyl disaster, that is inconsistent with Articles 3.1, 8.2, 16, 22.3, 46.1, 50.1 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
Having examined the issues raised in the constitutional complaints, the Court concluded that Article 54.3 of Law No. 796 does not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine (is unconstitutional) and shall cease to be effective three months after the date of termination or cancellation of martial law, introduced by the Decree of the President of Ukraine “On the Introduction of Martial Law in Ukraine” No. 64/2022 dated February 24, 2022, as amended.
At the same time, the Court closed the constitutional proceedings in the part concerning the constitutionality of passages 8, 9, 10 of paragraph 2 of Section I of Law No. 1584 due to the inadmissibility of constitutional complaints.
The Judges-Rapporteurs in this case are Oleksandr Petryshyn and Petro Filiuk.
