Tag: freedom of speech

On the occasion of snap Presidential election in Kazakhstan announced for June 9, the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) has listed a set of recommendations on the human rights record in Kazakhstan for the EU, OSCE PA and foreign missions on the ground.

ODF, FIDU and KHISR present this Submission with recommendations within the framework of the consideration of the UPR of Kazakhstan. Over more than nine years, ODF has presented expert opinion on human rights in Kazakhstan, obtaining information from first hand and in-country experience.

Following the coming to power of Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice party and its president Andrzej Duda in 2015, the state of the rule of law and democracy in Poland steadily deteriorated, as universally acknowledged by the international community, including the first ever… (read more)

On 9 October 2018, over 150 Kazakhstani representatives of human rights organisations and Kazakhstani citizens signed an open letter to Ambassador T. Greminger, General Secretary of the OSCE, in view of his visit to Astana to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the OSCE office in Kazakhstan.

On Wednesday 26 September 2018, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, was invited to the European Parliament, in Brussels, by Guy Verhofstadt, President of the ALDE Group, to deliver her speech on the rule of law and the situation of the civil society in Poland.

On 12 July 2018, eight MEPs signed an open letter addressed to President Nazarbayev decrying the human rights situation in Kazakhstan. MEPs J. Stetina, P. Austrevicius, T. Kelam, W. Klinz, A. Gomes, H. Hautala, V. Mazuronis and J. Nart denounced the reduction of the space for civil liberties.

On 3 March 2018, the police used brutal force to disperse a many-months-long protest near the Ukrainian parliament building. As a result of clashes between police and protesters, more than 100 people were detained.

16 December is Kazakhstan’s Independence Day. However, this date is also known as the anniversary of the Zhanaozen shooting: six years ago, at least 17 striking oilmen died from police bullets. Since then, this day has been associated with the oppression of the civil society in Kazakhstan.

On 12 October, 2017 the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy adopted a report by Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD) “The relations of the Council of Europe with Kazakhstan”

In modern Kazakhstan, activists and journalists receive prison terms for civil and trade union activities, for public criticism of the authorities, for participating in peaceful rallies, for publishing and sharing posts on social networks, and for conducting journalistic investigations.

The campaign aimed at discrediting the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC) and its leader Vitaliy Shabunin, continues in the form of a criminal case initiated against Shabunin for the alleged beating of journalist Vsevolod Filimonenko.

Strategic cooperation between the Council of Europe and Kazakhstan in the field of criminal and constitutional justice, human rights and democratic citizenship has so far been an essential monitoring tool in bringing Kazakhstani institutions in line with European standards.

Zhanbolat Mamay refused to give ‘self-incriminating testimony’ on the case of BTA Bank. After that he was beaten in detention centre and was threatened with reprisal. Zhanbolat Mamay has become yet another victim of the criminal case against the opposition politician Mukhtar Ablyazov.

On February 11, 2017, chief editor of the opposition newspaper ‘Tribuna’, Zhanbolat Mamay, was arrested. The Kazakhstani authorities have labelled him a ‘member of Mukhtar Ablyazov’s criminal group’. The charges against the journalist are based on the testimony of the refugee Zhaksylyk Zharimbetov,.

According to this year’s Human Freedom Index 2016 survey measuring widely understood personal and economic liberty, Eastern Europe is departing faster and faster from the western part of the continent.