[JURIST] The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association on Thursday cautioned [press release] Kazakhstan that its new bill amending the law on non-profit organizations may be detrimental to the existence of such groups within the country. The new bill establishes an operator that would be in charge of organizing and dispersing governmental and non-governmental grants to organizations not associated with the government. Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai said, “[t]he possibility for a centralized Government’s operator to distribute all grants irrespective of sources, be it public or private funds, enables the authorities to arbitrarily limit resources and to control the entire not-for-profit sector.” Kiai believes that non governmental entities’ rights to freedom of association may be violated with the new powers illustrated in othe bill. The bill was adopted by Kazakhstan’s senate last week and now moves forward to lower house of the parliament for final approval.

Kazakhstan has in recent years drawn international criticism for its human rights record. In November 2012 a court in Kazakhstan upheld the conviction [JURIST report] of an outspoken opposition leader accused of inciting dissent in an attempt to overthrow the government. In October 2012 Human Rights Watch claimed that oil workers in the country face mistreatment [JURIST report] and repression at the hands of the government and oil companies. However, Kazakhstan has taken some steps to improve criminal procedure. In January the Kazakhstan prosecutor general announced the newly adopted criminal procedure code will require police to read suspects their rights [JURIST report] when making arrests.