Legislation

Constitution as adopted by referendum on August 30, 1995

Article 7

(1) The State language of the republic of Kazakhstan shall be the Kazakh language.

(2) In State institutions and local self- administrative bodies, the Russian language shall be officially used on equal grounds along with the Kazakh language.

(3) The State shall promote conditions for the study and development of the languages of the people of Kazakhstan.

Article 14

(2) No one shall be subject to any discrimination for reasons of origin, social, property status, occupation, sex, race, nationality, language, attitude towards religion, convictions, place of residence, or any other circumstances.

Article 19

(2) Everyone shall have he right to use his native language and culture, to freely choose the language of communication, education, instruction, and creative activities.

Article 41

(2) A citizen of the Republic shall be eligible for the office of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan if he is by birth not younger than 35 and not older than 65, and has a perfect command of the State language and has lived in Kazakhstan for not less than 15 years.

Article 58

(1) The Chambers shall be headed by their chairpersons who are elected by the Senate and the Majilis from among the deputies who have a perfect command of the state language, under secret ballot by a majority of votes from the total number of the deputies of the Chambers....

Article 93

With the purpose of implementation of article 7 of the Constitution, the Government, local representative and executive bodies must create all necessary organizational, material and technical conditions for fluent and free-of-charge mastery of the State language by all citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan in accordance with a special law.

Top of page