Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset please allow me to express our sincere gratitude to the Government of Poland for a warm hospitality. We also thank the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Chairmanship for the arrangement of this annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. We also recollect with appreciation the Irish Chairmanship’s arrangement of the 1st SHDM on tolerance and non-discrimination in society through Sport held in Vienna in April this year, which, definitely, has facilitated the Irish boxer Katie Taylor to be among first women in the history of the Olympic Games to win gold medal in London in August this year. This is quite in line with the other Kazakhstan’s priority – gender equality.
Dear participants,
For the last several years Kazakhstan, both before and after its successful Chairmanship, was one of the most visible states in the OSCE activities due to always high level of the official delegations and numerous Kazakh NGOs at every event. Even today we boast that Kazakhstan continues to show high participation level with 61 Kazakh civil society organizations present at the forum.
The said activity of Kazakhstan is also reinforced by a constructive dialogue that we have with ODIHR on a number of issues related to enhancement of the democratic processes of my country. The ODIHR’s recommendations are taken into account. Many of them are being implemented and included into the texts of various legislative regulations.
I would also like to mention that extensive measures on improvement of the Kazakh system of human rights protection are envisaged in two key current programs: the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2009-2012 and the Legal Policy Concept for 2010-2020. As these policy documents are being successfully implemented, we observe a more efficient, consistent and coordinated policy in the human dimension with involvement of the Government, civil society and international organizations. This work is pursuing a comprehensive approach and we have made some progress already that brought Kazakhstan closer to the EU and OSCE standards for they envisage further progress of all legislative branches, as well as reforms in the law-enforcement, judicial systems and in the area of human rights protection.
Above that, the Government and public organizations in Kazakhstan have started the work on implementing directives of the Social Modernization Program of Kazakhstan initiated by the Head of the state with the focus on the social care and revision of the national legislation in the social area.
It is important to mention that in 2011 Kazakhstan has chaired in the number of authoritative international organzations such as Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. We were also active within UN the OSCE Troika. During the chairmanship of Kazakhstan in the OIC there was established a standing Committee on Human Rights, which will now allow to form a platform for dialogue and exchange of views and experience among the Muslim states on the issues of human rights and freedoms in all member states of the Organization.
I should say that Kazakhstan has stepped up onto the new level of implementation of the human rights protection mechanisms. It is a great pleasure to note that we have completed the work on joining to all fundamental international human rights conventions and agreements. I won’t go into details as participants will have a chance to learn about it during relevant sessions of our meeting. I would mention only that Kazakhstan holds a firm stand to continue its efforts in facilitating conformity of the legislative and law enforcement practices to international standards and guaranteeing domestic tools of human rights protection.
Dear participants,
As you are aware, one of the hallmarks of the Kazakh OSCE chairmanship in 2010 was a consistent work of the Government with the civil society and international experts. A vivid prove to that was a Consultative Council on the OSCE Human Dimension, which was established at the Kazakh Foreign Ministry in 2010 and was comprised of officials, civil society representatives and international experts from United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, Estonia and Germany. Upon the completion of its work, the international experts and civil society representatives have expressed their gratitude for formation of an essential agenda and the possibility to have an open dialogue on the urgent and prospective issues in the field of human dimension.
Currently the Kazakh Foreign Ministry has plans to establish a Working Group on Human Dimension, which will include representatives of Government, political parties, and civil society of Kazakhstan. We also intend to invite to this Group representatives and experts of international human rights organizations, accredited in Kazakhstan, including Almaty Helsinki Committee, Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Freedom House, NDI and other. The aim of the Group would be a constructive dialogue on issues related to the monitoring of implementation of the international human rights agreements, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as promotion of cooperation with OSCE institutions in the area of human rights. This step, in our view, is quite consistent with the Astana spirit, with the spirit of the Astana OSCE Declaration unanimously adopted by the Heads of 56 OSCE participating States in December 2010.
And last but not least. The delegation of Kazakhstan is thankful to the Irish OSCE Chairmanship as well as Swiss chairmanship of the Human Dimension Committee for carrying out important consultations on the review of Human Dimension events in order to increase their focus, attractiveness and effectiveness. We believe that the Irish perception paper on the Review of the Human dimension events is a good basis for discussion and our delegation is looking forward for a constructive dialogue in this regard.
In conclusion I would like to express hope that the present Meeting will be held with skill and diligence. We propose to avoid being passive and call for a constructive dialogue.
Thank you for attention.
www.kazakhembus.com/article/democracy-and-human-rights-progress-in-kazakhstan-at-home-and-abroad
