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.


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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