HRW urges Kazakhstan to implement UNHRC recommendations News
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HRW urges Kazakhstan to implement UNHRC recommendations

Human Rights Watch urged Kazakhstan to implement the recommendations from member states at the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on Thursday.

With 103 state delegates, the UN Human Rights Council made 294 recommendations on a variety of topics. These human rights concerns include various basic human rights provided by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, gender-based violence, LGBT rights and rights of people with disabilities.

Among them, the council continues to call for accountability for human rights violations during the “January events” in 2022. In 2022, anti-government protests erupted due to a surging consumer fuel price. The government authorized the disproportionate use of force and abusive practices, including torture, to quell the protests. The group said that “multiple countries also urged Kazakhstan to investigate allegations of torture and to hold those responsible for torture and other forms of ill-treatment accountable, with a view to ending impunity.”

Notably, even though Kazakhstan is not a signatory to the Convention against Torture, it has accepted the competence of the Committee against Torture to communicate to it allegations of the non-fulfilment of the Convention.

In its report ahead of the UN review, Kazakhstan stated its implementation of the Constitutional Court, which strives to

examine applications regardless of the applicants’ nationality, whether they are foreign nationals, stateless persons or refugees, thus upholding the general requirements for the applicants with regard to the principle of access to justice and equality before the law.

The court was implemented in November 2022 to allow citizens to appeal their legal issues directly to the court free of charge and uphold the rule of law. Kazakhstan has implemented this court to remain in compliance with the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, especially after the January 2022 protests. Member states of the UN Human Rights Council appreciated the establishment of the court and its abolishment of the death penalty since the last cycle.

Kazakhstan has until 2030 to implement the recommendations proposed by the UN before its next periodic review.

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