Kazakhstan: Judicial harassment of KIBHR and ILI Foundation
28/01/2021
Judicial harassment /
Kazakhstan
January 28, 2021
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Kazakhstan. Description of the situation:
The Observatory has been informed by the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR) about the judicial harassment of the KIBHR and the International Legal Initiative (ILI Foundation), two FIDH member organisations working in Kazakhstan, over the alleged violations of financial reporting procedure.
On January 25, 2021, the district office of the Almaty City Department of the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan ruled to fine and suspend the activities of the KIBHR and the ILI Foundation. After inspecting thousands of pages of the organisations’ r
Kazakhstan: Government Suspends Key Human Rights Organizations
The Kazakhstani government suspended several human rights organizations over their funding sources, escalating its ongoing campaign to curtail civil society.
In response to the suspension of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, International Legal Initiative, and Echo, Freedom House issued the following statement:
“The Kazakhstani authorities deployed onerous regulations to suspend civic groups on absurd charges, effectively silencing critical voices advocating for respect for human rights,” said Marc Behrendt, director of Europe and Eurasia programs. “By doing so, the government continued restricting civic activity through the regulations adopted in 2015-18. This crackdown directly contradicts President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev’s promises of political reform announced in 2019. We call on Kazakhstani authorities to cease persecution of human rights organizations immediately a
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Earlier this month, following Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections, tax officials in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, fined Echo, an independent nongovernmental organization. The group’s operations were suspended for three months just as it prepared to release a report on the recent election. A few days later, a human rights group, Erkindik Kanaty, was fined by tax authorities, too it had deployed observers to the recent election, some of which were harassed by police.
In a Facebook post, the International Legal Initiative categorized the actions as “a repression campaign against independent civil society organizations” and vowed to appeal in court.
The ongoing crackdown on local human rights groups casts serious doubt that Kazakhstan’s leadership is genuinely interested in reforms or improving its rights record.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says an ongoing "crackdown" on human rights groups in Kazakhstan for alleged financial-reporting violations casts "serious doubt" that the Central Asian country's leadership is serious about improving its human rights record.