On 25 November 2020, 6 members of the Italian Parliament addressed President Tokayev with a letter, expressing their deep concern about the worrying state of fundamental freedoms in Kazakhstan; the mass repression puts Kazakhstan’s international credibility and its intention of becoming a ‘listening state’ (i.e. open to dialogue with civil society) at stake right before its parliamentary election.
This morning, 4 July 2020, Iskander Yerimbetov, Kazakhstani political prisoner released on 30 December of last year, arrived at the Geneva Airport, Switzerland, after he was granted a humanitarian visa. ODF, the Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU) and his family warmly welcomed him at the airport, congratulating Iskander for this long-awaited day. This is […]
The coronavirus outbreak was labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. As of 22 June 2020, the WHO had reported cases of COVID-19 in more than 216 countries and more than 8,844,171 people infected worldwide.
As the government of Kazakhstan prepares to receive US$800,000 of additional assistance from the U.S. to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, President Tokayev continues to repress fundamental freedoms unabated.
This report provides an analysis of Kazakhstan’s implementation of the European Parliament Resolution of 14 March 2019 on the human rights situation in the country (2019/2610(RSP).
This report examines the cases of 56 victims of politically motivated criminal prosecutions in Kazakhstan. Among them, at least 16 are political prisoners who remain in prisons or pre-trial detention facilities.
We have learned with great relief of the release of Kazakhstani political prisoner Iskander Yerimbetov.
On 6 July 2019, rallies were planned in various cities of Kazakhstan to demand that the results of the presidential election be cancelled and Nazarbayev be deprived of power, as well as against Chinese expansion. Law enforcement agencies detained about 700 peaceful protesters in different places.
During the Spring session of the PACE, 22 members signed a written declaration under the title “Magnitsky laws sanctions must be imposed in response to political prosecution in Kazakhstan” tabled by André Gattolin, the French senator and member of the French delegation to the Council of Europe
In an attempt to prevent a reduction in the volume of foreign investment in the country’s economy, and to maintain its positive international image, the authorities of Kazakhstan are being forced to make individual concessions in the cases of political prisoners.
Due to the failure to provide necessary and timely medical assistance, Kazakhstani political prisoner Muratbek Tungishbayev has lost vision in one eye. He needs urgent hospitalisation.
On 10 May 2018, in Kazakhstan, the police dispersed peaceful protesters with the use of brute force. Participants in the protests were striving to draw the attention of the delegation of the EP to the problem of political prisoners and the practice of torture in the country’s detention centres.
Thus far, more than 38 cases of politically motivated criminal prosecution have been registered in Kazakhstan. Of these, 24 political prisoners are being held in prisons and detention facilities, or even (in two cases) in mental hospitals.
On November 13, 2017, MEPs submitted two written questions to the EU VP/HR on the politically motivated prosecutions taking place in Kazakhstan. This comes after MEPs, on October 19, addressed letters to the Kazakhstani state authorities, demanding the release of several political prisoners
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.
On 16 March, 2017, the European Parliament adopted a resolution regarding Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia and the situation in occupied Crimea. The resolution calls on the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release all Ukrainian political prisoners.
Russian military aggression against Ukraine is accompanied by a large-scale oppression of Ukrainian citizens. More than 60 people have been subjected to criminal prosecution for political reasons. Of these, 45 persons are being held in detention.
Searches and arrests, enforced disappearances and beatings, censorship and bans on protests have become an everyday reality in Crimea. Currently, at least 39 people are being held in detention on trumped-up charges.
As the Open Dialog Foundation, we would like to thank you for your support during the past year and wish you all the best in your professional and personal life in 2017! On this occasion we would like also to share with you some of the ODF’s top achievements of the year 2016.
“I’m speaking about this issue because I know that from every side, Russian propaganda is using every opportunity to attack the EU institutions and I think it’s crucial for human rights defenders, for everyone present in this room, to know that it is really important and we value your work”.
On 10-14 October 2016, during the 4th plenary session of the PACE, a world-wide #StopPutinsWarInUkraine action will take place and photos of political prisoners and histories of their persecution will be published on social media within the #LetMyPeopleGo campaign.
The Open Dialog Foundation and the Center for Civil Liberties would like to invite to the OSCE ODIHR Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2016 side-events (Sofitel Victoria Warsaw, Królewska St. 11, 00-065 Warsaw, Poland).
Vladimir Kozlov, Kazakh dissident, released from prison last month, after almost five years spent behind bars, wrote a letter to the Open Dialog Foundation. In the letter, he calls ODF activists his friends and thanks them for their dedication in fighting for his freedom.
More than three dozen Ukrainians continue to remain in detention for political reasons in Russia.
Donald Tusk should use the occasion of the meeting not only to exchange political pleasantries but also to address the sensitive and uncomfortable issues in the EU, said Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialog Foundation.
Stanislav Klykh (aged 41, a citizen of Ukraine) is one of the defendants in the so-called ‘Chechen case’ – a fabricated criminal case against senior Ukrainian officials for crimes committed on the territory of the Russian Federation during the First Chechen War in the mid-1990s.
On Monday, 25 January 2016, during the year-opening session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian civil society gathered at an event organized by the Open Dialogue Foundation and the Kyiv Dialogue.
Within the framework of the human rights campaign ‘LetMyPeopleGo’,ODF and the Civic Initiative ‘Euromaidan SOS’, present a report about 27 Ukrainians and 1 citizen of a European country who have faced unlawful and politically motivated criminal prosecution in Russia and the occupied Crimea.
On 21 September, 2015 a two-week review conference of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights “Human Dimension Implementation Meeting” took place in Warsaw, Poland.
The All-Ukrainian Union ‘Batkivshchyna’ [‘Fatherland’] supported the ‘Savchenko List’, created by our experts.This information was aired during a rally outside the Russian Embassy in Kiev by Member of the Verkhovna Rada from the ‘Fatherland’ Ivan Krulko.
We present to you an information booklet, devoted to the turbulent situation in the Republicof Kazakhstan – the largest country in Central Asia and the third largest economy in the CIS (after Russia and Ukraine).
