Geneva, Switzerland – 5 November 2014 – Destination Justice Litigation Program Co-Directors Silvia Palomba and Doreen Chen filed
a Petition with the
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (“WGAD”) calling for the immediate release of Ms. Zinaida
Mukhortova — a human rights defender, activist lawyer, and Kazakh citizen who has
been detained in a psychiatric facility in Kazakhstan since 2 July 2014. Over the
last four years, Ms. Mukhortova has been detained on five separate occasions on
charges stemming from a vacated and highly disputable mental health evaluation initiated
after her first detention. That detention occurred immediately following an open
letter in which Ms. Mukhortova called for investigations into potential Kazakh government
corruption.
The Petition follows criticism from multiple UN offices regarding Kazakhstan’s hostility toward political rights
activists and human rights defenders in particular. The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights noted that “the space for public criticism [is] shrinking rather
than expanding” in Kazakhstan”; likewise, bothUNESCO and the Human Rights Committee voiced concern over “reports that threats, assaults, harassment
and intimidation of journalists and human rights defenders had reduced the exercise
of freedom of expression.” These reports
signal a growing international discontent with Kazakhstan’s failure to fulfill its
obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”),
which Kazakhstan ratified in 2006.
The International Commission of Jurists,
Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International, andothers have expressed concern over Kazakhstan’s increasing restrictions
on political speech and noted that the country has become a hostile environment
for human rights defenders. More troubling still, human rights defenders in Kazakhstan
have been increasingly detained under highly questionable mental illness charges
similar to Ms. Mukhortova’s, such as “inciting religious discord” or inducing “involuntary
hypnosis.”
The Petition argues that Ms. Mukhortova’s
detention is arbitrary in multiple ways, set out under three of five categories the WGAD has defined for arbitrary detention types. A violation
of any one of these categories would render Ms. Mukhortova’s detention arbitrary.
First, the Petition demonstrates that
Kazakhstan failed to meet both national and international procedural
safeguards, for example, by failing to obtain a warrant for Ms. Mukhortova’s arrest,
and by failing to provide any valid substantive reason whatsoever for her arrest.
Second, the Petition demonstrates that
in detaining Ms. Mukhortova, Kazakhstan has (1) breached Ms. Mukhortova’s freedom
of thought, by punishing her for holding certain political beliefs; (2) breached
Ms. Mukhortova’s freedom of expression, by punishing her for the publication of
an open letter criticizing the government; (3) placed a chilling effect on the right
of an accused to obtain zealous legal representation; and (4) breached Ms. Mukhortova’s
right to political participation, by placing unreasonable restrictions on her ability
to participate in public life.
Finally, the Petition indicates that
Kazakhstan failed to honor Ms. Mukhortova’s right to counsel on at least two occasions.
Ms. Palomba explained that the Petition
calls for Ms. Mukhortova’s immediate release and it bids the WGAD to declare Ms.
Mukhortova’s current and all of her previous detentions arbitrary.
For more information about Ms. Mukhortova’s
case, contact Ms. Silvia Palomba atsilvia@destinationjustice.org and/or Mr. Kevin Crow at kevin@destinationjustice.org.
Destination Justice (DJ) is an independent
non-profit law, governance and development firm. DJ has assisted Ms. Mukhortova
on a pro bono basis
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