I. Summary
One year ago, Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin of Kazakhstan pledged to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that his country would improve its human rights policies and practices, in order to conform to the standards expected of a future chair of the OSCE. Kazakhstan is due to take over that chairmanship in 2010, so time is short. While Kazakhstan is not a country with frequent or dramatic government crackdowns on freedoms and human rights, when it comes to exercising fundamentals rights such as worship, speech, press freedom, and assembly, Kazakhstan's people live in an atmosphere that is far more circumscribed and fearful than in a country that meets its human rights obligations.
This report is published on the eve of the OSCE's Ministerial Council in Helsinki, scheduled for December 4 and 5, 2008. Foreign Minister Tazhin's reform pledges at 2007's OSCE Ministerial Council in Madrid included promises to amend the media law, reform the law on elections, and liberalize the registration requirements for political parties by the end of 2008. Minister Tazhin's pledges were unprecedented and welcome. On November 11 the government of Kazakhstan sent to parliament draft amendments in all the areas covered by the pledges. However, these measures are unlikely to result in meaningful and needed reform in media and electoral freedoms.
Moreover, Kazakhstan's human rights record is lacking in other areas that need meaningful reform. The report focuses on three areas, each of them key OSCE human dimension commitments: freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of expression; and freedom of assembly. Kazakhstan continues to actively restrict the exercise of these rights, and its upcoming chairmanship, therefore, risks undermining the integrity of the OSCE's human rights principles.
Religion
At the end of 2006 President Nursultan Nazarbaev signed a decree stating that people should avoid "non-traditional" and "extremist" religious associations. Since then, minority religious groups have been variously categorized as "sects" or "non-traditional" and have come under increased scrutiny and pressure from the authorities. Many groups that met with Human Rights Watch during 2008 pointed to what they believe is a media campaign that started in early spring 2008, apparently aimed at spreading fear of "non-traditional" religions-and perhaps even aimed at building support for a new draft law on religion that would seriously restrict the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Expression
In Kazakhstan, journalists operate in an environment of anxiety, faced with constant intimidating lawsuits and, not infrequently, direct threats to their person. Libel continues to be a criminal, rather than a civil, offense and carries stiff penalties. Even when journalists do not admit to outright self-censorship, they speak privately of the tightly regulated environment and topics they do not dare to cover. Threatening phone calls, visits by the police, and successive lawsuits are common. There are no independent television stations, and websites critical of the government are often blocked by the authorities.
Assembly
Public assembly is very tightly controlled, and any politically motivated public meeting is likely to be denied a permit or broken up by police, or both. In none of the cities that Human Rights Watch visited in 2008 were groups allowed to protest or even gather in the city center. Instead, there are designated areas for public gatherings, far from city centers and, at least in Almaty, difficult to access by public transport. When groups assemble in unsanctioned but peaceful protests, authorities react quickly, sometimes with force and sometimes preemptively. Protesters are often detained, put on trial, and face sentences of fines or 10 days' detention, sometimes more. Conversely, when groups with grievances call on the authorities to meet and hear their questions or concerns, the authorities are rarely responsive.
Human Rights Watch calls on the government of Kazakhstan to go beyond rhetoric and to implement, soon and consistently, the human rights reforms it has promised the OSCE and which are required of it as an OSCE member. In so doing, Kazakhstan would provide an important positive example to other countries of Central Asia.
We call on the OSCE Participating States to hold Kazakhstan accountable for its public pledges to implement reforms. In so doing, the OSCE would be helping the pro-reform forces within Kazakhstan and protecting the integrity of the OSCE.
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This report is based on three Human Rights Watch research missions to Kazakhstan in March, June, and July 2008. The report specifically draws on interviews with nearly 40 representatives of civil society, human rights activists, journalists, and representatives of religious organizations in Almaty, Astana, and Karaganda, as well as interviews and conversations with representatives of international organizations and the diplomatic community in Kazakhstan. Nearly all interviews were conducted in private and in Russian. One of the researchers is a native speaker of Russian, and the other two speak Russian fluently.
The names of some interviewees have been withheld, at their request.
Human Rights Watch also had some access to Kazakh government documents and communication with government officials. In early June 2008, our researchers met with representatives from the Presidential Human Rights Commission, the National Ombudsman and the Ombudsman's National Centre on Human Rights, and the Constitutional Council in Astana to discuss the human rights situation in the country and learn about ongoing reforms as Kazakhstan prepares for the OSCE Chairmanship in 2010.