Published on 6 November 2023
FIFTH SECTION
Application no. 30093/19
Galyna Mykolayivna NOVYKOVA against Ukraine
and 10 other applications
(see list appended)
communicated on 17 October 2023
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASES
The applications concern the State’s failure to pay pension amounts due to the applicants under final and binding judgments adopted in their favour for the periods when such payment had been suspended for the lack of procedure.
All applicants became internally displaced persons (IDPs) following the start of the hostilities in the eastern regions of Ukraine in 2014. Thereafter, they continued receiving their pensions according to a special procedure which required, inter alia, regular re-verification of their place of residence. As at some moment in time their IDP status was not confirmed under the above-mentioned procedure, the payment of their pensions was suspended.
The applicants instituted judicial proceedings which resulted in the domestic courts ordering the Pension Fund’s local branches to resume the payment of the applicants’ pensions and to pay them the outstanding amounts for the periods of suspension (final judgments dating between 2018 and 2021). However, those judgments remained unenforced awaiting the adoption by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of a special resolution which would define the modalities of payment of such “debts”. Such a resolution was eventually adopted in November 2021. It provides for the payment of the outstanding debts in monthly instalments in the amount of the subsistence minimum, budgetary allocations permitting.
Under Article 6 of the Convention and/or Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 all applicants complain of the non-enforcement of the final court judgments granting their claims. The applicant in the application no. 30093/19 also relies on Article 13 in the same respect.
The applicants in the applications nos. 8583/20, 3209/20, 12245/23, 18870/20 and 42357/19 further complain, explicitly or in substance, under Article 14 that they are being discriminated as compared to other persons receiving pension in that, being IDPs, they have to undergo additional procedures to obtain their pensions and even the final court judgments granting their claims remain unenforced or subject to a special procedure which does not apply to non-IDP pensioners.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
REGARDING ALL APPLICATIONS
Does the impossibility to obtain enforcement of the final and binding judgments given in the applicants’ favour disclose, in the circumstances, a breach of their rights as guaranteed by Articles 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention?
ADDITIONAL QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
REGARDING APPLICATIONS NOS. 3209/20, 8583/20 ,12245/23 18870/20 AND 42357/19
Have the applicants suffered discrimination in the enjoyment of their Convention rights, contrary to Article 14 of the Convention read in conjunction with Article 6 and/or Article 1 of Protocol No. 1? In particular, have the applicants been subjected to a difference in treatment in respect of the possibility to obtain enforcement of the final and biding judgments adopted in their favour on account of their IDP status?
If so, did that difference in treatment pursue a legitimate aim; and did it have a reasonable justification?
APPENDIX
List of applications
No.
Application no.
Case name
Lodged on
Applicant
Year of Birth
Place of Residence
Nationality
Represented by
1
30093/19
Novykova v. Ukraine
01/06/2019
Galyna Mykolayivna NOVYKOVA
1954
Donetsk
Ukrainian
Vadym Mykhaylovych MAKAROV
2
42357/19
Anisimova v. Ukraine
31/07/2019
Maryna
Yuriyivna ANISIMOVA
1995
Kostyantynivka
Ukrainian
3
1377/20
Kuziv v. Ukraine
06/12/2019
Sergiy
Ivanovych
KUZIV
1960
Lyman
Ukrainian
Yevgen Yuriyovych KUSHNERENKO
4
1611/20
Kukochkin v. Ukraine
11/12/2019
Yuriy Oleksandrovych KUKOCHKIN
1956
Lyman
Ukrainian
Yevgen Yuriyovych KUSHNERENKO
5
3209/20
Batyuk v. Ukraine
15/12/2019
Olena
Viktorivna BATYUK
1948
Kyiv
Ukrainian
Oleg
Oleksiyovych BATYUK
6
8583/20
Komisarov v. Ukraine
29/01/2020
Oleksandr Petrovych KOMISAROV
1952
Svobodne
Ukrainian
Vladyslav Eduardovych AGAPITOV
7
9603/20
Kovalev v. Ukraine
11/02/2020
Tymofiy Terentiyovych
KOVALEV
1931
(Deceased in 2023)
Ukrainian
8
10928/20
Bakanov v. Ukraine
17/02/2020
Oleksandr Lavrentiyovych BAKANOV
1940
Kharkiv
Ukrainian
9
18870/20
Khoruzhyy v. Ukraine
10/04/2020
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych KHORUZHYY
1990
Kostyantynivka
Ukrainian
10
12245/23
Leonova v. Ukraine
15/02/2023
Nadiya Mykolayivna LEONOVA
1952
Kyiv
Ukrainian
11
30526/20
Kovalenko v. Ukraine
03/06/2020
Natalya
Grygorivna
KOVALENKO
1956
Kyiv
Ukrainian
List of heirs in application 9603/20
Decedent
Heirs
Tymofiy
Terentiyovych
KOVALEV
Deceased in 2023
Yevgeniy Stanislavovych SMELIK
Born in 1985
Olga Tymofiyivna SMELIK
Valentyna Grygoriyivna KOVALYOVA
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy