Translated by Martina Marino
According to reports by a coalition of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders, Crude Accountability, Freedom for Eurasia, the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, the International Partnership for Human Rights, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Kazakhstan has, in recent weeks, begun targeting journalists and media outlets. Is freedom of expression at risk?
What is happening?
Since the beginning of the month, Kazakh police have carried out a series of raids against journalists, in particular targeting the independent newspaper Orda.kz, entering its offices and arresting staff members, and even bringing criminal charges against some of them. These actions are accompanied by the censorship of social media channels belonging to other independent journalists, as well as attacks on news websites aimed at rendering them inaccessible. Despite Kazakhstan’s repeated claims that it is respecting freedom of expression in line with its Constitution and its international obligations, including the fourth United Nations Universal Periodic Review held in January, the facts point in the opposite direction: censorship, targeted persecution of journalists, and violence.
Draft laws and “moral standards”
Following these targeted attacks, on 18 December the Kazakh Senate adopted two laws that violate freedom of expression: the first law targets so-called “propaganda” related to LGBTQ+ issues, discriminating against any form of expression connected to LGBTQ+ identities and effectively making public support for the rights of LGBTQ+ people illegal, with the clear intention of silencing any queer expression. The second is a draft law on crime prevention that introduces the notion of “antisocial behaviour”, defined as conduct that contravenes “generally accepted standards of behaviour and morality”, without specifying what these standards actually are or referring to any legal provisions that define their content. This draft also предусматривает the involvement of citizens as “public assistants”, tasked with identifying and reporting to the police behaviour deemed to violate such standards, in exchange for financial compensation and with authorisation to use physical force to prevent alleged violations.
The implications of the proposed laws
The implications of this practice are manifold: the state delegates to citizens a form of asymmetric power over their fellow citizens, which can manifest in physical violence and, notably, involves financial compensation. This raises the possibility that economically disadvantaged individuals may be compelled to participate in and thereby reinforce a repressive system out of necessity for survival. The fact that these so-called “standards” of moral conduct are neither publicly specified nor referenced in other legislation does not prevent arbitrary arrests or imprisonments from occurring. Moreover, these draft laws stand in direct opposition to the principles advocated by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev himself, who has repeatedly spoken in favor of creating a “just Kazakhstan, with equal opportunities and progress.”
Freedom on the brink
For the two proposed laws to come into effect, they must be approved by President Tokayev, and the future of freedom of expression in the country depends on his decision: will we witness a “just” Kazakhstan?