Zhovtis
Kazakhstan's foreign minister on his country's unlikely new role as Europe's democracy watchdog.
17.03.2010. Category:Kazakhstan
In a landmark for Central Asia, Kazakhstan this year has taken over the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) -- a key intergovernmental organization that monitors everything from security cooperation to political and human rights in 56 member states across Europe. It is the first former Soviet state, the first Muslim country, and the first country east of Austria to assume the chairmanship. But Kazakhstan is hardly a paragon of European democracy. Its authoritarian government, headed by longtime President Nursultan Nazarbayev, doesn't allow political parties to compete freely, is routinely accused of violating human rights, and is officially classified as "Not Free" by the U.S. NGO Freedom House. So how, ask critics, can Kazakhstan possibly be charged with upholding democratic standards in other countries?
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty ImagesMore ...
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty ImagesMore ...
Interview with CSCE Co-Chair A. Hastings on Kazakhstan
05.02.2010. Category:Kazakhstan
Co-Chairman Hastings Interview with Erica Marat of Voice of America
Question:Good morning, Congressman Hastings. It is our pleasure to have you here at VOA. My question is: you supported Kazakhstan’s bid to chair the OSCE back in 2007. Please tell us the main reason for your support.
Co-Chairman Hastings:That’s a very good question and, I had been involved at that time in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for almost 12 years and including at some point a few years back becoming the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE. I worked with the Central Asian countries pretty much six or seven years after they gained their independence in the early ‘90s until today.More ...
Question:Good morning, Congressman Hastings. It is our pleasure to have you here at VOA. My question is: you supported Kazakhstan’s bid to chair the OSCE back in 2007. Please tell us the main reason for your support.
Co-Chairman Hastings:That’s a very good question and, I had been involved at that time in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for almost 12 years and including at some point a few years back becoming the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE. I worked with the Central Asian countries pretty much six or seven years after they gained their independence in the early ‘90s until today.More ...
Kazakhstan's foreign minister on his country's unlikely new role as Europe's democracy watchdog.
05.02.2010. Category:Kazakhstan
In a landmark for Central Asia, Kazakhstan this year has taken over the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) -- a key intergovernmental organization that monitors everything from security cooperation to political and human rights in 56 member states across Europe.More ...
OSCE welcomes Kazakhstan as chair, but raises its record on rights
03.02.2010. Category:Kazakhstan
The U.S. arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has welcomed Kazakhstan as the new chair of the organization but cautioned the former Soviet republic that it must improve its own rights record if it wants to be effective in its new role.
OSCE Chairman n Office Kanat Saudabaev says his government will deepen the OSCE's humanitarian engagement in Afghanistan
February 02, 2010More ...
OSCE Chairman n Office Kanat Saudabaev says his government will deepen the OSCE's humanitarian engagement in Afghanistan
February 02, 2010More ...
OSCE role highlights slow Kazakhstan reforms
15.01.2010. Category:Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is fulfilling one of its most cherished foreign policy goals in taking up the chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the human rights watchdog.More ...
Senior OSCE official visits Kazakh rights defender in detention, stresses importance of fair appeals process
21.09.2009. Category:Kazakhstan
Following a meeting today with Kazakh human rights defender Yevgeny Zhovtis in the detention centre where he is held outside Almaty, the first deputy director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Douglas Wake, stressed the importance of full respect for fair trial standards in the consideration of Zhovtis' appeal.More ...
Human Rights activist sentenced
04.09.2009. Category:Kazakhstan
Yevgeny Zhovtis, one of Kazakhstan’s leading human rights activists, was found guilty on September 3 of vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison. Prior to the reading of the verdict, Zhovtis denounced his two-day trial as a "political setup."More ...
Trial against Human Rights activist opened
03.09.2009. Category:Kazakhstan
One of Kazakhstan’s most prominent human rights activists went on trial September 2, charged with causing death by dangerous driving. The trial has cast a spotlight on Kazakhstan’s judicial system. It is also being viewed as a litmus test of Astana’s commitment to democratic procedures, coming as it does just four months before Kazakhstani officials take over the helm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).More ...
Trial of Kazakh rights activist postponed
27.08.2009. Category:Kazakhstan
The trial of the prominent Kazakh human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis has begun in the town of Bakanas in Almaty Oblast but lasted just for several minutes before it was postponed due to the absence of the defendant's lawyers, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.More ...