Statement by United Nations Watch and Ingénieurs du Monde, delivered by intern Jordan Goldstein before the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, 1 July 2025. Agenda Item 6, Universal Periodic Review of Kazakhstan.

Full Speech:

Mr. Chair, we urge this Council to address the dire situation of human rights in Kazakhstan as documented in today’s report. We remain gravely concerned by the horrible police crackdown on mass protests in January 2022 which left more than 200 people dead, 2,600 injured, and 10,000 arrested.

There are credible allegations of torture and excessive force. And yet, more than three years later Kazakhstan has persistently refused an independent international inquiry into what has become known as Bloody January. Internal investigations have been demonstrably ineffective. The result? A pervasive climate of impunity.

Despite claims of democratic reforms and robust human rights protection peaceful assembly is arbitrarily denied. Activists frequently face preventative detention. Corruption is endemic. Parliamentary and presidential elections are neither free nor fair.

Dominant media outlets are either in state hands or owned by wealthy businessmen who are friendly to the ruling elite. Freedom of speech is restricted and punished.

Although Kazakhstan formally removed defamation from the criminal code in 2020 it was transferred to the administrative code punishable by up to 20 days of administrative arrest. The label may have changed but not the reality. Jail is being used to stifle dissent.

Vague laws on extremism are weaponized against civil society. Major segments of society face persecution, particularly ethnic minority groups and migrant workers who are often undocumented and frequently exploited.

Mr. Chair, it is time for the United Nations to demand that Kazakhstan adopt comprehensive legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

True human rights adherence demands real, verifiable change not just rhetoric. We ask the United Nations: When will you act for the people of Kazakhstan?

Thank you.

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Human Rights Council, 28^th Session

Item 6: UPR Report on Kazakhstan

19 March 2015

Delivered by Ziman Gao

Thank you, Mr. President.

UN Watch is concerned with the human rights situation in Kazakhstan, where a government dominates the political scene by detaining political opposition, silencing free media and restricting independent civil society.
UN Watch is disturbed to find that many important recommendations have been rejected by Kazakhstan. These relate to the freedoms of assembly, expression, religion, and include recommendations to modify the trade union law that unduly restricts freedom of association, revise the mandatory registration rules of religious groups, and decriminalize defamation of public officials.
There have been numerous reports of Kazakh authorities closing down media, detaining worshippers who practice religion outside state control, and jailing opposition leaders such as Vladimir Kozlov, who remains in detention after an unfair trial. We call upon the government to end such measures, review Kozlov’s case, and allow for media and civil society to operate freely.
UN Watch is also concerned with the rejection of measures to guarantee the exclusion by the judiciary of evidence obtained under torture. If the government is serious in its commitment to end torture, it has a responsibility to investigate all allegations of torture at penal colonies, take all necessary measures to protect prisoners’ health, and ensure full and adequate reparation.
Finally, Kazakhstan has rejected recommendations relating to reducing inequalities between men and women regarding labor conditions, especially remuneration gaps. The gap between pensions of men and women is 30% on average. We urge the government to amend the Labor law and take concrete steps to further promote gender equality.
Mr. President,
UN Watch regrets that the most meaningful recommendations in the report before us have been rejected by the government of Kazakhstan. We hope the Council will stand up to its founding principles and protect the rights of the citizens of Kazakhstan.
Thank you.

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The post Italian coalition may fall over illegal deportation of Kazakh mother and daughter appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA (18 July 2013) – Three United Nations human rights experts* have called on the Italian authorities to spare no efforts to facilitate the return to Italy of Kazakh national Alma Shalabayeva and her six-year-old daughter who were unlawfully deported to Kazakhstan on 31 May 2013.
“The circumstances of the deportation give rise to the appearance that this was in fact an extraordinary rendition which is of great concern to us,” the experts said.
Alma Shalabayeva is married to former political prisoner Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is a political opponent of Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev. He was granted political asylum in the United Kingdom in 2011 but fled after UK police warned him his life was in danger.
Ms. Shalabayeva and her daughter were legal residents in the European Union and living in Italy when they were expelled. The experts said the actions of the Italian authorities had violated guarantees of due process and deprived Ms. Shalabayeva of her right to appeal against deportation and to apply for asylum.
The experts, François Crépeau, Juan E. Méndez and Gabriela Knaul, said the authorities also appeared to have ignored concerns that Ms. Shalabayeva might be at risk of being persecuted, tortured or subjected to other forms of ill-treatment upon her forcible return to Kazakhstan due to her husband’s political activities.
“We are encouraged to see that Italy has now publicly recognized that the deportation of Ms. Shalabayeva and her daughter was unlawful and unacceptable,” said the UN experts on the rights of migrants, torture and independence of the judiciary.
They welcomed the decision to officially revoke the deportation order and the announcement that investigations were under way to determine responsibility for the illegal expulsion.
“We appreciate the Italian authorities’ commitment to carry out thorough investigations on the case and welcome the developments thus far,” the experts said. “We urge both Italy and Kazakhstan to continue to investigate and hold those responsible accountable.”
Italy is a State party to many international treaties which prohibit the expulsion, refoulement or extradition of a person to a State where it is feared he or she would be at risk of persecution and/or torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including the Convention against Torture and the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.
“Furthermore, the Italian authorities have an obligation, under international law, to provide for an effective remedy to the victim of the violation, in this case Ms. Shalabayeva and her daughter,” the Special Rapporteurs said.
“Given the possible serious implications of this case, we call upon both the Italian and Kazakh authorities to cooperate and reach a diplomatic agreement to facilitate the rapid return of the deportees,” the experts said.
“We also urge Kazakhstan to uphold international human rights and respect Ms. Shalabayeva’s and her daughter’s freedom of movement by allowing them to safely return to Italy where they have been welcomed back by the Italian authorities.”
(*) The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez; and the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul.
ENDS

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Rights groups protest sure win by Pakistan, Venezuela,
Kazakhstan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, and UAE

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 — At around 11:30 am New York time today the U.N. will announce today’s voting results and name Pakistan, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, and the United Arab Emirates to the UN’s highest human rights body, though they are unfit under the U.N.’s own membership criteria. Click here for UN Watch’s full report  — Executive summary below.

“Pakistan, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, and UAE systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, “and they have consistently voted the wrong way on U.N. initiatives to protect the human rights of others.”

UN Watch this year led an international coalition of 40 MPs and NGOs that appealed to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, the EU, and world leaders to oppose the bids by Chavez and Pakistan.

– See Pakistan appeal, petition, testimonies: https://unwatch.org/StopPakistan

– See Venezuela appeal, petition, testimonies: https://unwatch.org/StopChavez

“Regrettably,” said Neuer, “neither the U.S. nor the EU said a word. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies are complicit in the world body’s moral decline.”

“We saw the same indifference last week when Sudan, whose leader is wanted for genocide by the International Criminal Court, was elected by 176 votes — with support from at least 10 EU states — to ECOSOC, a principal U.N. organ that oversees the accreditation and work of human rights NGOs, and decides the composition of U.N. women’s rights bodies.”

“Chavez backs the murderous regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and threw a judge in jail after she released a political prisoner in compliance with a U.N. ruling. Pakistan has a Christian mother of five on death row and coddles the extremists who shot a girl in the head for advocating education for women and girls,” said Neuer.

“It is an insult to their victims — and a defeat for the global cause of human rights — when the U.N. helps gross abusers act as champions and global judges of human rights.”

“When the U.N.’s highest human rights body becomes a case of the foxes guarding the henhouse, the world’s victims suffer.”

A Friday press briefing by UN Watch and Human Rights Foundation featured genuine and courageous champions of human rights who pleaded against the election of their oppressors:  Eligio Cedeno, Venezuela’s most famous political prisoner prior to his 2009 escape to America; Marcel Granier, a persecuted journalist from Venezuela; Sajid Christopher, a Christian minority rights activist from Pakistan; and Igor Vinyavsky, a journalist from Kazakhstan who was a political prisoner released from jail earlier this year. (See photos on the right, for higher quality photo album click here.)

EVALUATION OF CANDIDATES FOR 2013-2015
MEMBERSHIP ON THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

Click here for full report PDF

Presented at U.N. Headquarters

Executive Summary

This report evaluates the countries that have submitted candidacies for the Nov. 12, 2012 election of 18 new members to the UN Human Rights Council. To evaluate qualifications we applied the membership criteria established by UNGA Resolution 60/251, in particular by examining (a) each candidate’s record of domestic human rights protection; and (b) its UN voting record. The report finds as follows:

Not Qualified
Seven candidates have poor records and are not qualified:
Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, UAE, Venezuela

Questionable
Two candidates have problematic records and thus questionable candidacies:
Kenya, Sierra Leone

Qualified
Only 11 out of 20 candidate countries are qualified to be Council members:
Argentina, Brazil, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Montenegro, South Korea, Sweden, United States

The absence of competition this year in four out of the five regional slates is scandalous, undermining the very premise and rationale for holding elections. Nevertheless, this report reminds UN member states that they have the right to refrain from voting for countries deemed Not Qualified, even if those happen to be running on closed slates. Instead, as detailed in the report, during the ballot they can actually defeat such candidacies, and instead free up the process for qualified alternatives to come forward. We note several alternative candidacies for the relevant regional groups, who have better human rights and U.N. voting records:

Qualified Alternative Candidates
Africa: Cape Verde, Ghana, Namibia, Zambia
Asia: Mongolia, East Timor
Latin America: Panama, Paraguay

In regard to candidate countries deemed Questionable, they should, at a minimum, be asked to commit to redress the shortcomings identified in this report.

Click here for full report PDF

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