Case record
Country
Russia
Court
Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation
Year
2019
Areas of Law
Constitutional law, Civil law, Human rights
Citation
Decision on the Restitution of Property to Victims of Political Repressions, Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (2019)
Judgment No. 39-P (2019), known as the 'Children of the Gulag' judgment, struck down restrictive regional housing laws that prevented children of Soviet political repression victims from returning to cities where their families lived prior to unlawful arrest and exile.
During the Soviet era, hundreds of thousands of citizens were unlawfully repressed, imprisoned, or exiled to labor camps (Gulags), and their urban family homes were confiscated. Under the 1991 Law on Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions, victims and their children born in exile had a statutory right to return and receive social housing in their home cities (such as Moscow). However, local Moscow municipal regulations imposed impossible 10-year residency requirements, effectively blocking rehabilitated citizens from returning.
Housing rights for children of Soviet political repression victims
Soviet NKVD conviction and exile documents, statutory rehabilitation certificates, municipal housing waiting lists, and constitutional complaints filed by three elderly women born in exile.
Applicants argued that municipal residency barriers violated statutory rehabilitation rights and constitutional housing principles. Moscow municipal authorities argued that local housing quotas and budgets took priority over federal rehabilitation claims.
The Constitutional Court declared regional residency restrictions unconstitutional and ordered the federal legislature to establish immediate direct housing guarantees for victims of political repressions.
The Court held that the state bears a moral and legal duty to restore full constitutional rights to victims of unlawful Soviet repressions. Federal rehabilitation obligations cannot be undermined by regional municipal housing barriers.
Compelled federal legislative reform to guarantee social housing access for rehabilitated repression victims and their families without regional residency requirements.
Compelled federal legislative reform to guarantee social housing access for rehabilitated repression victims and their families without regional residency requirements.
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