President Nicolas Sarkozy of France should use his upcoming state visit to Kazakhstan to convey a clear message that it needs to undertake serious human rights reforms.

I am writing to express concern about the trial of Evgenii Zhovtis and to urge that you ensure that he be given a fair hearing when his appeal is heard on October 20.

This submission highlights a number of key areas of concern regarding Kazakhstan’s compliance with its international human rights obligations. In the past several years the government has made a number of important and welcome steps, but these have not amounted to meaningful reform to address the country’s human rights problems.

A Kazakh court has sentenced the country’s leading human rights defender to four years of imprisonment in a trial that did not meet basic fair trial standards

The Kazakh government should ensure that Kazakhstan’s most prominent human rights defender, who faces manslaughter charges following an automobile accident, gets a fair trial.

The government of Kazakhstan should rescind a new law that significantly restricts media freedoms.

The Kazakh government has seven months to improve its human rights record to meet the standards of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) before it takes over the institution’s chairmanship.

The Kazakh government should use the remaining seven months before it takes on the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to bring its human rights record in line with the responsibilities this prominent role entails.