State bodies work to implement National Human Rights Action Plan

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ASTANA. February 23. KAZINFORM. The development of civil sector and human rights in Kazakhstan is one of the key aspects playing an imperative role in outlining top priority directions of the state policy. One of Kazakhstan's supreme bodies to oversee the situation in this field, the Presidential Commission for Human Rights is in constant interaction with the governmental authorities,

religious associations, international organisations, representatives of accredited diplomatic missions of foreign states, media, and particularly the Commission actively uses the potential of NGOs in educational and expert-analytical sphere.

"The data provided by non-governmental sector is of great importance for the preparation of annual and special reports of the Commission on human rights situation in the country, and contributes towards the effective analyses and development of recommendations for improvement of legislation in regards to the human rights," Secretary of the Kazakhstan Human Rights Commission Tastemir Abishev said in an extensive article in the Liter newspaper on February 22.

"There are 12 representatives of the non-governmental sector among 23 members of the commission, while the expert committee predominantly consists of representatives of the civil society," he elaborated. "Therefore, the Commission, without substituting neither governmental bodies nor NGOs, actively participates in the formation and improvement of the governmental policy in the sphere of human rights, and contributes to the strengthening of the international cooperation in this field."

According to Abishev, NGOs have actively participated in the development of the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2009-12, while six out of 12 members of the national plan working group are the most prominent NGOs in Kazakhstan.

"As the result, we have developed and adopted a national document which provides a list of concrete steps to improve the legislation and law enforcement practice, national system of protection of human rights, and increase the literacy of population regarding their rights and mechanisms aimed at ensuring those rights," Abishev emphasised.

The National Plan for 2009-12 was approved by President Nazarbayev in May 2009, and international experts, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), UN Development Programme, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the European Commission and the US Department of State have all commended its elaboration.

"As of 10 January 2011, around 40 percent of the recommendations provided in the National Plan have been implemented in practice," Abishev highlighted.

The Commission interacts with NGOs mainly through joints events, such as meetings at conferences, various training seminars and round tables, the press service of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reports.

"Together with NGOs we inspect penitentiary institutions. Members of the Commission provide NGOs with methodological and consultative support," he commented. "In accordance with the mutual agreement, difficult to solve complaints of people received by NGOs are referred to the Commission."

Abishev highlighted the fact that the Commission's cooperation with international human rights organisations had also been widening. For instance, in partnership with the UN Development Programme and UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office, the commission's digital library in Kazakh and Russian languages, which is unprecedented in scope throughout the post-Soviet realm, has been successfully launched.

The periodically updated library allows free access to a wide collection of human rights related documents, as well as takes into account the complaints and communications filed by citizens of the country to the Commission and to the President. Thus, it provides citizens with the opportunity to find free legal information on the most relevant human rights questions.

According to Abishev, the Commission works closely together with the OSCE Astana Centre, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the European Commission, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"New forms and methods of interaction between governmental authorities and non-governmental bodies should be tested in the course of the implementation of the National Plan, allowing using the NGOs' remedial potential, achieving wider implementation of human rights, particularly of the most vulnerable categories of people such as disabled, children, women, elderly, returnees, refugees, stateless persons and others," Abishev concluded.

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