In this issue:
President Presses Ahead with Political Reforms, Election of Local Akims Introduced
Human Rights Ombudsman Gets Enlarged Powers
President Signs Decriminalization Changes in Criminal Codes
Parliament Approves Bill Paving Way to Public Oversight of Prisons
Senate Approves Bill Introducing Arbitration
Kazakhstan’s Gold, Foreign Currency Reserves Grow 14.6 Percent in One Month
Kazakhstan Boasts More Than 2,000 News Media Outlets, 80 Percent Are Private
Woman in Semipalatinsk to Mark 120th Birthday in January
Couple of toasts and a saying for the season.
To health! --- Densaulyk ushin!
To long life! --- Ozak omir ushin!
East or West, home is best. --- Oz uiem, ken saraidai boz uiem.
President Presses Ahead with Political Reforms,
Election of Local Akims Introduced
President Nursultan Nazarbayev began a new stage of democratic reform in Kazakhstan this week, signing two decrees introducing elections for local officials and one decree giving stronger powers to the Human Rights Ombudsman (see following story).
According to the decrees, signed December 6, akims (mayors) of villages and districts will be elected instead of being appointed. One decree gradually introduces polls to elect akims in all Kazakh villages from August 2005 through the end of 2007. The practice will be national.
Another decree says elections of akims will take place in some districts (counties) in August 2005 as an experiment. The Central Election Commission, in partnership with regional governors will choose the districts and work out the best ways to hold elections.
These progressive changes are consistent with President Nazarbayev’s statements earlier this year. Regional governors and mayors of Almaty and Astana are appointed by the President.
Human Rights Ombudsman Gets Enlarged Powers
Kazakhstan’s Human Rights Ombudsman Bolat Baikadamov has stronger powers this week following the signing of a presidential decree on December 6.
Under the decree, the Ombudsman’s office, in existence since 2002, will get such additional powers as being able to participate in court investigations in order to protect human, civil rights and freedoms, send petitions to courts or prosecutors asking them to review legal documents, court sentences, court definitions and enactments which are already in effect. The Ombudsman also received authority to ask houses of Parliament to hold parliamentary hearings following his review of complaints filed by Kazakh citizens, foreign citizens and persons without citizenship, or based on information about the violation of their rights and freedoms.
The Ombudsman now also the right to ask authorities
or officials to open a disciplinary or administrative
procedure, or a criminal case against an official who
violates human and civil rights. The Ombudsman may
now also request measures in compensation for
financial or moral damages.
Mr. Baikadamov has been Kazakhstan’s Human
Rights Ombudsman since the establishment of the
office in 2002. His office became an important part
of the system of protection of human rights and
receives a growing number of complaints as people
began to realize the possibility of seeking restitution
through the Ombudsman.
Separately, the President kept the Presidential
Commission on Human Rights which also reviews human rights questions in Kazakhstan.
President Signs Decriminalization Changes in Criminal Codes
President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a law on December 9 introducing amendments to several legal statutes which simplify the procedures for investigating criminal cases and decriminalize several types of crimes. The law takes Kazakhstan further down the path of legal and judicial reforms started a number of years ago.
Amendments to the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedures Code and Administrative Offenses Code simplify and quicken procedures for preliminary investigation of simple crimes.
The new law expands the scope of punishments, including measures other than imprisonment. Certain types of minor crimes are decriminalized and moved to a category of administrative offenses. These include beatings, harming somebody while under the influence, and causing harm of lesser degree through carelessness.
Parliament Approves Bill Paving Way To Public Oversight of Prisons
Members of Kazakhstan’s Senate voted December 10 approving a bill establishing a legal foundation for public oversight of the country’s penitentiaries. The bill will make certain Kazakhstan observes international standards and provisions as set forth in international human rights pacts it has become a signatory to.
Approval of the bill, a product of the conference committee report of both house of Parliament, came on the heels of a similar move in the Majilis (lower house of Parliament).
The measure provides a legal basis for activities of public commissions monitoring human rights and prison conditions.
Currently, these commissions operate in seven of Kazakhstan’s 14 oblasts (regions). Nongovernmental organizations have been calling for their expansion nationwide as well as creation of a solid legal foundation to make their work more effective. Earlier this month, Vera Tkachenko, Director of Penal Reform International for Central Asia, called for that move in an interview with a major daily Kazakh newspaper (please see Kazakhstan’s Echo of December 8).
The bill also provides benefits for prison guards and other workers at penitentiaries. To become law, the bill needs the presidential signature.
Senate Approves Bill Introducing Arbitration
Members of the Senate on December 10 approved a bill establishing for the first time ever in Kazakhstan the institution of arbitration.
The bill continues the ongoing reforms in the legal system of Kazakhstan aimed at making it more modern and flexible to protect the growing civil society. Under this measure, arbitrators will review civil litigation.
The bill awaits the presidential signature.
Kazakhstan’s Gold, Foreign Currency
Reserves Grow 14.6 Percent in One Month
The National Bank of Kazakhstan announced on December 6 that its gold and foreign currency reserves grew to US$12.92 billion in November 2004, a 14.6 percent growth compared to the previous month.
This figure includes US$4.59 billion currently held in the country’s National Fund as excess tax revenue from petroleum production. The National Bank’s net reserves grew 17.8 percent to reach US$8.32 billion.
Kazakhstan Boasts More Than 2,000 News Media Outlets,
80 Percent Are Private
There are more than 2,000 news media outlets in Kazakhstan today. Eighty percent are privately owned.
Deputy Minister of Information Ardak Doszhan revealed this statistics which show a 13 percent growth compared to last year at a round table discussion in Astana on December 3.
The 2,120 news media outlets include 1,332 newspapers, 590 magazines, 187 TV and radio stations and 11 information agencies. Kazakhstan’s population of 15 million always seems hungry for news.
The news media mostly use Kazakh and Russian languages, but there are outlets in German, Korean, Hebrew and many other languages.
The former capital city of Almaty remains the leader in terms of registered and operating news media outlets with total of 800. South Kazakhstan, Karaganda, East Kazakhstan oblasts and the new capital city of Astana follow in that order.
Woman in Semipalatinsk to Mark 120th Birthday in January
Tausari Astamirova, a Chechen woman exiled to Kazakhstan by the Soviets in the 1940s, will mark her 120th birthday in January 2005. She will mark the date in the company of 60 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and even one great-great-granddaughter who is in the third grade.
Asma Dibayeva, a granddaughter of Mrs. Astamirova, explained that her grandmother was born in Chechnya in the town of Urus Martan. In 1944, she was deported to Kazakhstan along with her husband during Joseph Stalin’s purges of the Chechen people. The family later settled in Semipalatinsk.
Of her children, only the youngest daughter, who is 77, is alive, but Mrs. Astamirova is surrounded by great numbers of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Her passport specifies only her year of birth as 1885, but not the date. She herself doesn’t remember her birth date. Yet, she remembers her mother saying she was born when it was bitterly cold, so the family chose to celebrate her birthday in January, around the time of what Russian Orthodox Christians call the Epiphany Frost.
Things to Watch
- The Foreign Investors Council under the President met in Astana on December 10. Membership includes executives of multinational corporations doing business in Kazakhstan but based in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Russia and other nations, as well as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and officials of the Kazakh government. The council discussed ways for Kazakhstan to improve its investment climate.
- President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with visiting former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in Astana earlier this week to discuss Kazakhstan-Canadian cooperation. Later in the week, Mr. Chrétien, former US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbroke and others took part in “Kazakhstan and its relations with the West”, a two-day conference held in Almaty.
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News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
(Compiled from own sources and agency reports)
Contact person: Roman Vassilenko
1401 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036
Tel.: (202) 232- 5488 ext. 104, Fax: (202) 232- 5845
