Kazakstan International Bureau of Human Rights & Rule of Law

The bureau was created by a group of human rights defenders and members of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. Its activities encompass four spheres of human rights activity: monitoring and reporting rights violations, lobbying, independent legal assistance, and education. The group has consulted government commissions that draft legislation, and has published materials addressing issues of freedom of speech, freedom of association and the right to due process of law.

Since 1993, the bureau has offered free legal consultations to approximately 1,000 people each year. It produced a TV program, "You Have a Right!," broadcast in more than thirty 15-minute episodes. The bureau also produces a monthly information bulletin, issued a 24-page report on the human rights situation in

Kazakstan, and has conducted seven international conferences, some in conjunction with other NGOs.

Conference titles have included: Public Associations and the Authorities: "Cooperation in a Democratic Society," Fundamental Human Rights and their Protection by Non-Governmental Organizations," and "Problems and Practice of the Death Penalty in Kazakstan and Other CIS Countries."

In 1997, the bureau sent an open public letter to President Nursultan Nazerbaev and the Kazak Parliament to promote freedom of the press and protest government restrictions on free assembly. It was one of three organizations to protest the registration requirement for NGOs, claiming that citizens should have the right to form an NGO without government approval.

A print version of much of the information contained in this Central Asian Third Sector Organizations section can be found in Civil Society in Central Asia (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999).

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Last updated:    November 1998