Freedom of expression

The human rights community in Kazakhstan recorded at least 24 people imprisoned on politically motivated charges during the year, including human rights defenders, activists, bloggers and journalists.

Authorities restricted media access to areas affected by flooding in April and prosecuted journalists and bloggers for reporting critically on the government’s handling of the disaster. Uralsk-based journalist Raul Uporov was fined for “petty hooliganism” after harshly criticizing the restrictions on media coverage of the flooding.

In May, a court fined journalist Jamilya Maricheva from the ProTenge project on charges of “spreading false information”. She had posted a comment on her Telegram channel in support of Radio Azzattyk journalists who had been denied accreditation from the authorities.

A media law approved in June featured new provisions on compulsory state registration for online media.

Grounds for denying accreditation to foreign media outlets and their journalists under new regulations published in August were broadly worded, stating that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may reject requests for accreditation “in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. Foreign journalists were not allowed to work without accreditation.

In October a group of journalists challenged in court new rules for the compulsory accreditation of domestic media with government institutions. The regulations restricted journalists to publishing or quoting only information from the media outlet they were accredited to. The case was ongoing at the end of the year.

Freedom of association

Participation in organizations designated “extremist” remained punishable by up to six years’ imprisonment.

Dozens of individuals were prosecuted and convicted for being supporters of unregistered peaceful opposition political parties or movements allegedly linked to the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement, arbitrarily designated “extremist” by a court in the capital, Astana, in 2018.

Some activists convicted on extremism-related charges were added to the government’s “list of organizations and people associated with financing terrorism and extremism”, causing their bank cards and access to their bank accounts to be blocked.

In August, journalist and political activist Duman Mukhamedkarim was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on charges of financing and participating in a banned “extremist” organization. The charges concerned his alleged support for the DVK movement. In November, an appeal court upheld the verdict and in addition banned him from attending public events and giving interviews for three years. His lawyer planned to challenge the decision.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Legislation unduly restricted peaceful assemblies, requiring prior permission, limiting locations and imposing fines or jail time for subsequent “violations”. The 12-month statute of limitations for such “offences” allowed the authorities to jail protesters long after the event, often to prevent them from participating in future protests.

Local authorities in the city of Almaty arbitrarily banned a feminist march planned for 8 March.

In October, police arrested 12 activists who had been planning a peaceful protest rally against a nuclear power plant construction project, and charged them with preparing riots.

Impunity

The authorities failed to conduct full and prompt investigations into allegations of the unlawful use of force, torture and other serious human rights violations committed by security forces during protests in January 2022, or to bring those responsible to justice.

Of the hundreds of criminal cases for torture and ill-treatment opened following the January 2022 events, official figures as of January indicated that only 34 individuals had been convicted while proceedings were ongoing against almost 50 other officials. Many cases had been dropped.

In some cases, however, a heavier sentence was imposed on appeal. In March, a contract soldier previously acquitted by the Almaty Garrison Military Court in November 2023 had his sentence overturned on appeal and was sentenced to imprisonment. He had initially been charged with abuse of authority for shooting and killing a four-year-old girl while she and her siblings were travelling by car to shop for groceries during the January 2022 events.

Gender-based violence

In April, parliament re-established criminal sanctions for domestic violence and enhanced protections for domestic violence victims. Nevertheless, comprehensive measures to prevent and eradicate domestic violence were lacking, and violence against women and girls remained widespread.

During the year, 32 men were convicted of the rape and/or murder of women and children. In 2023 the Prosecutor General’s Office had estimated that around 80 women a year died from domestic violence.

The conviction of former minister of economy Kuandyk Bishimbayev in May to 24 years’ imprisonment for beating his wife to death raised public awareness of the high rates of domestic violence in the country.

In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders and other UN experts expressed serious concern over the criminal prosecution of exiled women’s rights activist Dina Smailova, which “appear[ed] to be in retaliation against her work as a woman human rights defender and exercising her rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association”.

LGBTI people’s rights

LGBTI people faced harassment and discrimination from the authorities, as well as pro-government supporters and other groups, often under the guise of preserving “traditional values”.

A petition calling for legislation to criminalize “LGBTI propaganda” caused a domestic and international outcry and hearings on the proposed law were postponed until 2025. UN experts noted that “[t]he petition itself is based on prejudice, and any legislation arising from it would inevitably and unlawfully trample on human rights.”

In February, the government blocked a website aimed at informing young people about LGBTI issues, citing the protection of national traditions and children’s rights as justification.

On 9 October, a member of the ruling Amanat party asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to designate Feminita, a leading LGBTI NGO, as an “extremist” organization. On the same day, members of the Union of Parents tried to disrupt a meeting of Feminita, attempting to break into the premises, shouting insults at the participants and filming them. Police officers called to the event photographed the identity documents of those participating in the meeting but took no action against the protesters. Feminita lodged a complaint with the police, but the status of the investigation was unknown at year’s end.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

Activists from Uzbekistan’s autonomous Karakalpakstan Republic residing in Kazakhstan faced the threat of forcible return to Uzbekistan. There they risked torture and long prison terms on politically-motivated charges for campaigning against human rights violations in Karakalpakstan. Three activists, Akylbek Muratbai, Rasul Zhumaniyazov and Rinat Utambetov, were arrested between February and April and remanded in custody following extradition requests from Uzbekistan on spurious charges of disseminating information that presented a threat to public order. Akylbek Muratbai, who had lived legally in Kazakhstan for 10 years, applied for refugee status, but the Refugee Commission turned down his request. An appeal against this decision was pending at year’s end.

Right to a healthy environment

The Climate Change Performance Index ranked Kazakhstan as a “very low performer”, criticizing its lack of a transparent accounting system for greenhouse gas emissions and its failure to produce action plans for coal phase-out, climate adaptation and a green transition. Kazakhstan remained among the top 30 greenhouse gas emitters globally.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan suffered environmental disasters exacerbated by climate change, including the worst flooding in decades in April, which prompted a state of emergency to be declared in 10 of the country’s 17 regions. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes and several died. The flooding exacerbated pre-existing water supply issues, in particular inequality in access to clean drinking water which especially affected rural areas. Floodwater also washed away cattle and anthrax burial grounds, further raising the risk that limited water supplies for drinking and irrigation could be contaminated and jeopardizing food security.