KAZAKHSTAN: UNDER SECRETARY BURNS'S MEETING WITH CIVIL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 001161 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL, EUR/RPM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KDEM OSCE KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: UNDER SECRETARY BURNS'S MEETING WITH CIVIL SOCIETY REPRESENTATIVES ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: On July 10, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns met in Astana with civil society leaders. Burns told them that Kazakhstan's 2010 OSCE chairmanship presented unique opportunities for Kazakhstani civil society, and noted that President Nazarbayev had recently signed Kazakhstan's first National Action Plan on Human Rights. The civil society activists remarked that the Action Plan was put together with significant input from NGOs, but said that its true worth will depend on its implementation. Kazakhstan still needs to internalize and implement many international norms, they explained. According to one participant, the executive branch dominates the other branches of government, and the legislature and the judiciary have little independence. The civil society activists said they do operate relatively freely and do not face open intimidation, although some occasionally experience "nuanced and indirect pressure," like tax investigations and hefty fines for non-compliance with tax law. END SUMMARY. ¶3. (SBU) During his July 10 visit to Astana, Under Secretary Burns and delegation met with several representatives of Kazakhstani civil society: Zauresh Batalova, head of the Polyton discussion club; Anara Ibrayeva, head of the Astana branch of the Human Rights Bureau; Sergei Belkin, president of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions; Albert Lozovoy, head of the Astana office of the Pokoleniye pensioners' rights movement; and Meruert Kazbekova, head of the Union of Women Entrepreneurs. ¶4. (SBU) Burns told the group that the bilateral partnership between Kazakhstan and the United States, while strong and growing, cannot be complete without a dialogue between the two countries' societies. He said that Kazakhstan's upcoming OSCE chairmanship presents unique opportunities for Kazakhstani civil society. Burns noted that President Nazarbayev recently signed Kazakhstan's first National Action Plan for Human Rights, and asked the participants to lay out what they perceive to be the most important objectives and challenges facing Kazakhstan in the area of democracy and human rights. ¶5. (SBU) Anara Ibrayeva noted positively that the National Action Plan was drafted with significant input from NGOs like the Human Rights Bureau and the Almaty Helsinki Committee. She said that Yevgeniy Zhovtis, the director of the Human Rights Bureau, authored the Plan's several chapters on civil and political rights. She praised the Plan for giving specific recommendations to the government on how to improve legislation, institutions, and the implementation of human rights protections. ¶6. (SBU) The Polyton Club's Batalova also said the Plan is a "good project," but argued that its true worth will only be proven on implementation. Sometimes there can be a great distance between intention and action, she said. In her view, Kazakhstan's priority for its 2010 OSCE Chairmanship should be to "internalize" international norms on human rights, such as those laid out in the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. ¶7. (SBU) Batalova suggested several areas where Kazakhstani legislation lags behind international standards. In her view, electoral legislation is a "serious challenge." The 2007 constitutional amendments, which mandated that candidates to the Mazhilis (lower house of the parliament) be elected through party lists rather than directly, prevent those without a party affiliation from running for office, thus effectively excluding them from political participation. There is no legal provision for independent candidates. Batalova claimed that the same amendments transferred to the office of the President over 86 powers that had previously been the purview of the legislative and the judicial branches, which significantly weakened the Parliament's oversight over the Presidency and diluted its legislative powers. She said that the judiciary is a weak counterweight to the President's office. Kazakhstan needs to undertake significant reforms to separate the three branches of government, she asserted. ASTANA 00001161 002 OF 002 ¶8. (SBU) Pokoleniye's Lozovoy told the delegation that Kazakhstani legislation lagged behind international standards, and those of other CIS countries, in the benefits afforded to pensioners and World War II veterans. He agreed with Batalova that the judiciary does not do enough to protect individual rights. He said that his organization has lobbied the government for legislative changes that would create a fully independent judiciary and an expansion of powers for the Presidential Human Rights Commission. ¶9. (SBU) Special Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for Russia and Eurasia Michael McFaul asked the group whether there were cases of activists facing jail or physical threats for their work. The civil society leaders agreed that they operate relatively freely and do not face open intimidation. Ibrayeva asserted, however, that pressure from the authorities can sometimes be "nuanced and indirect." Some of the examples of such "pressure," she said, are unannounced tax audits of NGOs and hefty penalty fines for those found non-compliant with tax law. (NOTE: The specific NGO she cited receives funding the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, which does not fall under the U.S. Kazakhstan Bilateral Assistance Agreement. END NOTE.) She also mentioned the use of the Law on Extremism against some non-traditional religious minority groups. Independent trade union head Belkin said that the authorities also frequently limit his organization's activities through the law on public assemblies -- specifically, its provisions that all public meetings must be approved by local authorities, who have the power to designate where those meetings can be held, which usually means on the outskirts of the relevant locale. HOAGLAND