IIKSS - Brussels/Almaty, 23 November 2016. Today the EU will hold the eighth round of its annual Human Rights Dialogue with Kazakhstan in Brussels. This meeting comes at a time when the EU has begun establishing closer political and economic relations with the Central Asian country under an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. Brussels-based International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) together with Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR) have urged the EU to use this dialogue to insist on concrete measures by Kazakhstan’s government to deal with pressing human rights concerns.   
Ahead of today’s meeting, the four NGOs have briefed the EU on key issues and cases of concern in Kazakhstan, which it would be important to raise with the Kazakhstani authorities.
“As part of a wider trend seen in the former Soviet Union, the climate for free speech is currently alarming in Kazakhstan,” said Brigitte Dufour, IPHR Director. “The European Parliament decried the situation in a resolution adopted in March 2016, and this issue should be addressed as a priority in the EU’s relations with Kazakhstan,” she continued.
There are only few media outlets left in Kazakhstan that are openly critical of the government, and several of them have recently faced debilitating defamation lawsuits. News and other sites that report unfavourably on government policies are blocked. Recently a growing number of criminal cases have also been initiated against journalists, bloggers and civil society activists.
Among these cases is that of civil society activists Maks Bokayev and Talgat Ayan, who are currently on trial over their role in peaceful land reform protests that took place in Kazakhstan this spring. At a trial that has been deemed “political” in nature even by the judge, prosecutors are now seeking eight-year prison terms for the two activists on charges of “violating the procedure for holding protests”, as well as “disseminating information known to be false” and “inciting social discord”. Charges brought under the latter two broadly worded criminal code provisions, which have been criticized by international human rights bodies, are often used against outspoken individuals. Editor Guzyal Baydalinova, civil society activists Ermek Narymbaev and Bolatbek Blyalov and political activist Serikzhan Mambetalin have all been convicted on such charges this year.
Source:OMCT