April 7, 2009

Yulia Kuznetsova,

According to Kazakh human rights defenders, beginning of 2009 in Kazakhstan – the country that is going to chair OSCE in 9 months’ time – was marked by certain positive shifts towards democracy and respect of human rights. However, the overall trend of sidestepping international and constitutional principles of respecting human rights and ensuring the rule of law is still in place.

Human rights activists have reflected positive shifts from the point of view of Human Dimension in their commitments fulfillment monitoring document. The commitments were publicized by the Foreign Minister Marat Tajin during OSCE meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers held in Madrid in November 2007. Most experts tend to think that the situation has changed in the legal sphere in advance of the upcoming Kazakhstan’s 2010 OSCE chairmanship.

Kazakhstan is the first post-Soviet country to take the chair of this organization. As Vera Tkachenko, Director of Legal Policy Research Center, stated this has become a great achievement of Kazakhstani diplomacy which is a big responsibility at the same time.

“Of course, Minister Tajin’s speech had a significant socio-political effect in 2007 in our country. But as many nongovernmental organizations believe, the commitments he mentioned that should have resulted in political modernization of the existing system have never been properly fulfilled, - Vera Tkachenko underlined. – To be more specific, this related to refinement of legislation on political parties, elections, local self-governments, and media.” Human rights defenders have made a number of statements during the past years saying that the country should go beyond Minister Tajin’s speech and start resolving human rights related issues.

“Today, after all this time, we can finally discuss good news. The proposed law on “Religion” is declared unconstitutional and, as we believe, “departed this life” at least for the next three years, until Kazakhstan finishes its OSCE chairmanship. (Kazakhstan will be member of so-called “OSCE Troika” constituted by three Chairpersons – present, past and future. – VOF). There has been some progress in resolving the conflict around Hare Krishna Society. Its spiritual leader, Govinda Swami, is no longer prohibited to enter Kazakhstan – the prohibition was cancelled on 26 March, Ninel Fokina, Chair of Almaty Helsinki Committee, says.

According to Fokina, this news along with other positive shifts gives a ‘temporary room’ for redressing existing human rights problems in the country.

Nevertheless, there are still many issues in the human rights sphere, as human rights defenders note. “If we analyze events that occured in January, February and March this year, we will see the whole bunch of court proceedings in the religious sphere alone, for instance, Drenchieva case. And even though the court of appeal released her, this doesn’t mean she is acquitted, - Ninel Fokina explains. – There are other instances such as closure of the Church of Scientology in Karaganda and Almaty Church of Scientology criminal case. And multiple arrests of Baptist leaders for 5-10 days. And continuous raids during prayer meetings. And continuous flow of media publications intensifying hatred and intolerance towards religious associations“...  

As for the last problem – intolerance of media towards individual religious groups – Viktor Ovsyannikov, representative of the Religious Associations of Kazakhstan, provided some statistics. During four months, from October 2008 to February 2009 when amendments to the law on religion have been intensively discussed, the Association carried out monitoring of media publications covering issues of religion and religious communities. “It is of utmost importance to us taking into consideration the power of mass media in shaping public opinion, - Viktor Ovsyannikov explains. – We have analyzed 1,845 articles covering the sphere of religion. Out of this number, 91 materials focused on issues directly related to religious communities and groups. “Khabardak in the Head”, “Nothing Sacred”, “No Sectarianism!”, “Faith for Inventory”, “Sect and the City”, “It’s not the Word”, “Subjected to Liability for Advocating for Inferiority”, “House of God or Center of Trade” are just some of the headings of the publications. The headings alone can give one an understanding that such articles shape people’s specific attitude towards religious groups in our society.”

As the Head of the Religious Associations of Kazakhstan says this would not be unusual unless the National Security Committee and the General Prosecutor’s Office were mentioned at least in half of all publications. “In this case, the Government is doing the right thing raising public awareness, but most of these materials don’t give another point of view – that of members of religious minorities themselves” – he summarizes.

As Andrey Grishin, journalist and human rights activist representing Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, notes that the government has already demonstrated “positive” examples and proved that “it is capable of solving problems it creates itself.” “But in this case, the government should solve problems in full, - the expert remarks. – There have been positive shifts in Hare Krishna Society’s history, but to resolve the existing problem completely,the government should also resolve other issues, for example those related to Society’s immovables and land property. Besides, we believe there is a need to reimburse both material damage caused to the Society when dismantling buildings and moral damage continuously caused during the past several years.”

Kazakhstan is going to take the chair at OSCE in 9 months’ time. Nikel Fokina believes the country still has some time to change the human rights situation: “It is possible to conceive and give birth to a child within 9 months. I hope that these signs of an early fruit that we have now indicate that by the time Kazakhstan takes the chair at OSCE, we will noticeably advance and this will be designate real promotion in terms of fulfillment of our international commitments.”