“Blind Man\u2019s Bluff: Kazakhstan\u2019s Mirage of Compliance with International Obligations to Uphold the Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Assembly and Association” by Kapok Tree Diplomacy<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Kapok Tree Diplomacy. May 2011. All rights reserved. Jeff Dwiggins.<\/span><\/p>\n FREE PREVIEW<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Entire essay is 7,209 words, 26 pages double-spaced, 42 references<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The posts, views and opinions expressed in this paper are completely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of the Navy (DON) or any of the Armed Forces.<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Right to Freedom of Expression<\/span><\/p>\n A.\u00a0\u00a0 ICCPR Principles and Obligations<\/span><\/p>\n B.\u00a0 \u00a0ICCPR General Comment No. 34<\/p>\n C.\u00a0\u00a0 OSCE Principles and Obligations<\/p>\n II.\u00a0\u00a0 The Right to Freedom of Assembly and Association<\/span><\/p>\n A.\u00a0\u00a0 Background<\/p>\n B.\u00a0\u00a0 ICCPR Principles and Obligations<\/p>\n C.\u00a0\u00a0 OSCE Principles and Obligations<\/p>\n III.\u00a0 Freedom of Expression – Gaps between Practice & Commitments<\/p>\n A.\u00a0\u00a0 Kazakhstan’s National Legal Framework for Upholding Freedom of Expression<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0\u00a0 Libel<\/p>\n B.\u00a0\u00a0International Assessment of Kazakhstan’s Record on FOE –\u00a0the 2010 UPR<\/p>\n C.\u00a0 <\/span>Other International Assessment of Kazakhstan’s Record on FOE – NGOs and Think Tanks<\/p>\n D.\u00a0\u00a0 Other High Profile Cases<\/p>\n IV.\u00a0 FOE – Recommendations to Achieve Greater Compliance<\/p>\n V.\u00a0\u00a0 Freedom of Assembly and Association (FOAA)-Gaps between Practice\u00a0& Commitments<\/p>\n A.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Kazakhstan\u2019s National Legal Framework for Upholding FOAA<\/span><\/p>\n B.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>International Assessment of Kazakhstan\u2019s Record on FOAA \u2013 the 2010 UPR<\/span><\/p>\n C.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>Other International NGOs and Think Tanks\u2019 Assessment on FOAA<\/span><\/p>\n D.\u00a0\u00a0 Forming Political (Parties) Associations <\/span><\/p>\n E\u00a0.\u00a0 <\/span>Restrictions on FOAA for Religious Groups<\/span><\/p>\n VI.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>FOAA – Recommendations to Achieve Greater Compliance<\/span><\/p>\n VII.\u00a0 Conclusion<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leveraging billions of dollars of oil, gas and mineral reserves while avoiding major inter-ethnic conflict, Kazakhstan has become the most powerful and prosperous of all Central Asian states under the savvy and astute leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the first to chair the prestigious 56-member Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010 (Dave, 250). Despite Kazakhstan\u2019s impressive political and economic trajectory, the state has failed to consistently recognize and secure many important civil and political rights for its citizens that are enshrined in international human rights treaties. <\/p>\n The rights to the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association may be considered cornerstones of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the OSCE Copenhagen Document, and the OSCE Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly which help to guarantee and safeguard democracy, common societal interests, and the rule of law (Kz-OSCE 4). The two rights are complementary with a violation of one often violating the other. This essay seeks to answer the following question: To what extent do Kazakhstan\u2019s excessive restrictions on the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association fail to meet its obligations undertaken in accordance with the ICCPR, the OSCE Copenhagen Document, and OSCE Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly? This essay will limit its coverage to the 2007 \u2013 2011 timeframe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[772,5,229],"tags":[948,942,967,962,908,966,923,819,954,904,941,914,926,37,922,944,949,965,648,934,961,950,692,906,907,905,960,778,911,920,927,943,38,952,925,972,918,937,210,917,174,936,947,955,903,968,969,711,940,924,956,931,964,27,909,110,970,916,974,930,929,910,913,464,915,921,973,935,938,353,820,912,958,681,957,928,953,618,932,939,951,256,963,209,933,919,208,945,971,946,776,959],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights-and-conflict","category-international-relations","category-paid-content","tag-adil-soz","tag-amendment","tag-ar-rukh-khak","tag-arrests","tag-astana","tag-azat","tag-censorship","tag-civil-rights","tag-committee-to-protect-journalists","tag-compliance","tag-constitution-of-the-republic-of-kazakhstan","tag-copenhagen-document","tag-defamation","tag-democracy","tag-derogated","tag-dignity","tag-discrimination","tag-dissent","tag-elections","tag-esc","tag-fines","tag-freedo-house","tag-freedom","tag-freedom-of-assembly","tag-freedom-of-association","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-freedom-of-information-law","tag-freedom-of-religion","tag-gas","tag-good-faith","tag-helsinki-act","tag-honor","tag-human-rights","tag-human-rights-report","tag-iccpr-general-comment-no-34","tag-illegal-assemblies","tag-ilo","tag-intent","tag-international-covenant-on-civil-and-political-rights","tag-international-labor-organization","tag-international-law","tag-international-standards","tag-internet","tag-kazakh","tag-kazakhstan","tag-kazakhstan-international-bureau-for-human-rights-and-rule-of-law","tag-kibhrrl","tag-law","tag-law-of-the-republic-of-kazakhstan-on-mass-media","tag-media","tag-media-freedom","tag-morals","tag-national-human-rights-action-plan","tag-national-security","tag-nazarayev","tag-ngos","tag-nur-otan-party","tag-obligations","tag-observer","tag-odihr","tag-office-for-democratic-institutions-and-human-rights","tag-oil","tag-organization-of-security-and-cooperation-in-europe","tag-osce","tag-osce-guidelines-on-freedom-of-peaceful-assembly","tag-pacta-sunt-servanda","tag-participant","tag-peaceful-assembly","tag-permission","tag-political-pluralism","tag-political-rights","tag-president-nursultan-nazarbayev","tag-ramazan-yesergepov","tag-religion","tag-reporters-without-borders","tag-representative-on-freedom-of-the-media","tag-respublika","tag-rule-of-law","tag-siracusa-principles","tag-spontaneous","tag-state-department","tag-terrorism","tag-think-tanks","tag-udhr","tag-un-economic-and-social-council","tag-un-treaties","tag-universal-declaration-of-human-rights","tag-universal-periodic-review","tag-unregistered-organizations","tag-upr","tag-vienna-convention","tag-yevgeniy-zhovtis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31a0x-6o","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Section One \u2013 The Right to Freedom of Expression<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
ICCPR Principles and Obligations<\/em>.<\/span> The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), though not legally binding, declares that \u201cEveryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression \u2026 and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers\u201d (Art. 19).<\/span>The ICCPR, which Kazakhstan ratified in 2006 (UN Treaty Collection), expands upon this definition and binds state parties “in accordance with its terms and with international law” (Steiner, Alston and Goodman (SAG) 152). Treaty obligations are to be governed by the Vienna Convention’s Article 26 fundamental principle of pacta sunt servanda<\/em> which states, “[e]very treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith” (Dunoff, Ratner & Wippman (DRW) 58). Article 19 of the ICCPR declares:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/h4>\n
(1) Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. <\/span><\/h4>\n
(2) Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers<\/i>, either orally, in writing or in print \u2026 or through any other media <\/span><\/h4>\n
(3) The exercise of the rights \u2026 may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary, (a) for respect of the rights or reputations of others, and (b) for the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals. (1966)<\/span><\/h4>\n
ICCPR General Comment No. 34.<\/i> The ICCPR Committee recently issued General Comment (GC) No. 34, which elaborated further on the meaning of freedom of expression and is intended to provide additional specificity and clarification to states on their obligations associated with this right. GC No. 34 explains, \u201cFreedom of expression is a necessary condition for the realization of the principles of transparency and accountability\u201d (para. 2), and adds that it cannot be \u201cderogated from during times of emergency\u201d (para. 4), nor silenced by \u201carbitrary arrest, torture, [and] threats to life and killing\u201d (para. 22).<\/span><\/h4>\n
The Committee asserts, \u201cA free, uncensored and unhindered press or other media is essential in any society\u201d (para. 12), and states must guarantee media \u201cindependence and editorial freedom\u201d (para. 15). The Committee affirms that the general public must have access to \u201cinformation held by public bodies\u201d (para. 17), and restrictions to expression imposed on grounds of national security or public order cannot \u201cput in jeopardy the right itself\u201d(para. 20). Monopoly control of the media by the state is highly discouraged (para. 41). <\/span><\/h4>\n
Finally, the Committee says \u201cthe mere fact that forms of expression are considered to be insulting to a public figure is not sufficient to justify the imposition of penalties\u201d (GC 34 para. 40), and makes it clear that states cannot ban or shut down media providers, \u201cimpose onerous licensing conditions and fees\u201d on them, or allow \u201cexcessive punitive measures and penalties\u201d be imposed on them in libel or defamation lawsuits on the basis of the media provider being \u201ccritical of the government\u201d (GC 34 paras. 41, 44, 45 & 49).\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
Table of Contents<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n