OMCT - World Organisation Against Torture
OMCT - World Organisation Against Torture
07/25/2024 | Press release | Archived content
Kazakhstan: Report on the safety and protection of human rights defenders and civil society
The report has been drafted by the Coalition for the Security and Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Civil Society Activists, and finalized and translated into English with the support of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture) under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In 2019, the Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council submitted 245 recommendations under the UPR following the consideration of the Second Periodic Report of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In January 2020, the Republic of Kazakhstan accepted 214 recommendations and rejected 31 recommendations. Of these, over 30 recommendations were directly related to the situation of human rights defenders. This report include an evaluation of the implementation of the recommendations on the security and protection of human rights defenders, and recommendations in this area.
The reporting period under the UPR since 2019 has been showing an increased level of risks for human rights defenders and activists for a number of factors, including the transition of power, the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of emergency, the events of January 2022, and the elections and referendums in 2022-2023. January 2022 will go down in history as "bloody" due to the suppression and shootings of protesters and civilians who did not know about a state of emergency due to the shutdown of the Internet access, as well as mass detentions and torture in detention.
During this period, non-profit organizations and human rights defenders were also more vulnerable because of the official policy portraying them not only as "foreign agents", but as extremists, too. Due to the lack of specific regulatory norms in the legislation of Kazakhstan on the mandatory implementation and enforcement of the decisions of the treaty bodies and special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council, to which activists, human rights defenders and journalists mostly appeal, these decisions are not fully implemented. The communication procedure enshrined in by-laws also does not lead to the implementation of the decisions of the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan do not take measures to implement these decisions.
The detailed evaluation of the UPR recommendations' implementation and recommendations from the upcoming UPR review of Kazakhstan are described in the report.