Striking Oil, Striking Workers

This report analyzes the tactics employed by Kazakh authorities and three companies operating in the oil and gas sector in western Kazakhstan to restrict workers’ rights to freedom of assembly, association, and expression leading up to and during peaceful labor strikes that began in May 2011. Local authorities broke the strike at one of the companies in June. Workers at the other two continued peaceful strikes until December 16, 2011, when clashes erupted between police and others, including striking oil workers, in Zhanaozen, a town in remote western Kazakhstan. Police shot 12 people dead in the clashes.

Update: On September 6, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Kazakhstan presented Human Rights Watch a letter in response to our June 4 letter outlining our preliminary findings and seeking the government's perspectives. At the time of the report's publication, Human Rights Watch had not received a response from the Ministry. An unofficial translation of this letter can be found here.