• Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev (C) listens to police officers in Zhanaozen on December 22, 2011.
    © 2011 Reuters
    Kazakhstan/Germany: Make Rights Key to Good Relations
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel should raise urgent human rights concerns with the Kazakhstan government during talks with President Nursultan Nazarbaev on February 8, 2012.
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  • Human Rights in Kazakhstan

    Despite government claims to the contrary, Kazakhstan has a disappointing human rights record. It failed to carry out meaningful rights reform during its 2010 chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and keeps tight control over freedom of assembly, religion and media. In mid-December 2011, law enforcement used lethal force against civilians in response to rampages and looting in Zhanaozen, the site of a 7-month oil workers’ strike in western Kazakhstan. In August 2011, a union lawyer was imprisoned for six years for speaking out on workers’ rights and Kazakhstan’s most-prominent human rights defender, Evgeniy Zhovtis, remains in prison.

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Kazakhstan

  • Kazakhstan/Germany: Make Rights Key to Good Relations
    Feb 6, 2012
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel should raise urgent human rights concerns with the Kazakhstan government during talks with President Nursultan Nazarbaev on February 8, 2012.
  • Kazakhstan: Letter to the Prosecutor General regarding the December events in Zhanaozen and Shetpe
    Feb 1, 2012
    I am writing to express Human Rights Watch’s profound concern about several issues related to the December 16 and 17 events in Zhanaozen and Shetpe. These include allegations about excessive use of lethal force by law enforcement, ill-treatment and torture of detainees taken into custody following the December 16 violence in Zhanaozen, allegations of theft and extortion by police officers, and arrests of oil workers and labor and political activists charged in connection with the violence.
  • Kazakhstan: Opposition Activists Arrested
    Jan 24, 2012
    Kazakh national security agents in Almaty detained a leading opposition activist on January 23, 2012.
  • The Soviet Fall and the Arab Spring
    Jan 10, 2012
    Twenty years ago, in July 1991, I was poised to start a job researching human rights violations in the Soviet Union. A month later, the failed coup to unseat Communist Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev precipitated rapid political changes that would lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25. Watching these events, my family told me I would no longer have a job. Like many others, they assumed that the end of communism would usher in a new era of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in the Soviet Union’s successor states. I started my new job as planned and it only took five minutes to see that those assumptions were wrong.
  • Kazakhstan: Detainee Dies After Police Beating
    Dec 22, 2011
    A man detained in connection with the December 16, 2011 violence in western Kazakhstan died on December 21 apparently from injuries sustained in police custody.
  • Kazakhstan: Protect Detainees From Torture, Ill-Treatment
    Dec 22, 2011
    Kazakh authorities should immediately investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees following violence in Zhanaozen on December 16, 2011, and hold those responsible accountable.
  • Kazakhstan: Ensure Independent Probe Into Clashes
    Dec 18, 2011
    The Kazakh authorities should immediately restore communications with Zhanaozen and ensure an investigation into clashes there between police and civilians is independent.
  • Kazakhstan: Investigate Violence in Oil-Rich Western Region
    Dec 17, 2011
    Kazakhstan’s law enforcement officers should strictly observe human rights norms as they restore order in Zhanaozen, a city in western Kazakhstan.
  • Kazakhstan is a land of few freedoms – as I discovered
    Oct 31, 2011
    The news that Tony Blair was advising Kazakhstan on economic reform and how to improve its international image broke as a colleague and I from Human Rights Watch were researching violations of workers' rights in the western part of this oil-rich country. Throughout our trip we were under constant heavy surveillance by the authorities and at times subjected to outright intimidation.
  • Kazakhstan: Appeals Hearing Should Vindicate Labor Rights
    Sep 14, 2011
    The upcoming appeal hearing for a labor union lawyer should comply with international fair trial standards and uphold legal protection for legitimate trade union activity, Human Rights Watch said today.
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