Marat Sarsembayev, former member of the UN Human Rights Committee, Doctor of Law, Professor
Ladies and gentlemen!
I listened with interest to the speech by the Commissioner of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Human Rights, A.E. Lastaev, dedicated to the problems of combating torture and other forms of ill-treatment in the Republic of Kazakhstan. He demonstrated a detailed picture of the Kazakh state and society's counteraction to torture, showed what real measures are being taken in the country to combat torture, analyzed the areas of activity to minimize them and eliminate them in practice in the future.
The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Kazakhstan provides assistance to the Head of the Kazakh State in organizing the implementation of human rights in the country, including the fight against torture. It is well known that President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K. Tokayev’s political reform agenda and full implementation of those reforms included the ongoing efforts to prevent cases torture in prisons or in other places of detention through laws and in practice.
And we as the civil society have encouraged the government to hold perpetrators of torture accountable. We have been involved into the drafting and, later, in implementing Presidential Decree on Human Rights and Rule of Law. This Decree includes the Action Plan that outlines legal steps that Kazakhstan has already made to align domestic legal framework with its international commitments.
Thus, we have: 1) differentiated torture and inhumane or degrading treatment in the body of national laws; 2) aligned forensic and psychological research with the Istanbul Protocol; 3) incorporated zero-tolerance policy towards such abuses in the Criminal Code.
As the result, over the cause of last years, more than 160 law-enforcement officials have been found guilty of torture in Kazakhstan. These are historic numbers for our region with Kazakhstan becomes the only country prosecuting its law enforcement officials for torture and keep them responsible by serving long-years sentences in prisons.
The Commissioner of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Human Rights, as we learned from his speech, proceeds from the fact that freedom from torture is an absolute right of every person and citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, that the Republic of Kazakhstan is guided by the principle of zero tolerance for torture and other forms of ill-treatment, that the country should pursue a policy of prevention and the consistent and steady practical eradication of torture. These ideas have become leading in the work of the Kazakh Ombudsman primarily because the Republic of Kazakhstan became a party to the Convention against Torture in 1998, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2005, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in 2008, which we are pleased to discuss today within the walls of this universal international organization (UN), which is directly related to the birth of these necessary and useful international legal acts of our time.
It should be noted that in the Ombudsman's speech was said that in the country, the activities of criminal prosecution authorities and places of detention are monitored by more than 45,000 video cameras in 78 institutions, the presence of which makes it possible to prevent torture, and the footage becomes evidence in criminal cases of torture. The continuous functioning of the National Preventive Mechanism, which has been operating and proving its effectiveness in places of detention in the country for more than 10 years, contributes to the prevention and eradication of torture. Medical care in these institutions has become completely independent of law enforcement agencies and subordinated exclusively to the structures of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which grants medical workers the right to report directly to the prosecutor through appropriate terminals if there are grounds to believe that the person under investigation, the defendant, the convicted was subjected to torture.
I share the position of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Kazakhstan that it is necessary to talk not only about the successes in the fight against torture, about the statistics of bringing perpetrators of torture to justice, but also about the problems of further combating torture, which he has formulated quite professionally. But he not only formulates them, but also offers reasonable solutions to them. It is necessary to strengthen the implementation of IT technologies in order to improve the work on ensuring order and discipline in temporary detention facilities and penitentiary institutions, as well as in the preparation of reports and analytical developments. The Ombudsman's proposal to increase the size and the need to improve the mechanism for compensation of harm from torture should be supported.
As a representative of civil society, I would like to propose that a separate article on stalking be included in the current Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Such a criminal law article becomes necessary when a person who has been tortured, after serving his sentence after several years, would like to bring his executioners to criminal responsibility for the torture they committed, but cannot, because the torturers themselves and their colleagues in the police institution threaten him with torture to put him behind bars again. In order for a victim of torture to be able to withstand such threats and actions, it is necessary that a court decision based on this article on stalking forbids approaching and threatening the victim within a radius of 15 meters: approaching the victim within a radius of 14 meters or less with threats creates criminal liability for the menacers under the stalking article.
I take this opportunity to participate in the event on the prevention and elimination of torture at the United Nations, which includes UN committees on various human rights, including the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Committee against Torture, and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture. As an ex-member of the UN Human Rights Committee in 2012, I would like to make one suggestion. For some reason, all the UN committees, including the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture, declare year after year that their decisions are advisory in nature. This leads to the fact that many States do not consider it possible and necessary to implement these decisions. This leads to the fact that thousands and thousands of decisions of the UN Committees are being taken in vain. I am making a proposal to declare these decisions of the UN Committee against Torture and the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Committees binding on all States parties to the relevant international covenants and conventions on human rights. The basis for such a proposal is the international legal principle: international treaties must be implemented. States have signed and ratified 60-70 pacts, conventions, and agreements on human rights and have undertaken obligations to strictly comply with these international legal instruments. And the high-level international professionals who sit on these UN Committees against Torture and other Human Rights Committees only assist States in the implementation of these international legal acts on human and civil rights and freedoms.
With this approach, judicial or other authorized bodies, including authorized bodies of Kazakhstan, will have to automatically implement these decisions of the UN Committee against Torture. This will be another means of curbing acts of torturein the territory of almost every State.
In a certain sense, it will become easier for a human rights institution, such as the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to ensure compliance with all international and domestic standards for combating torture in practice.
Thank you for your attention.
Ladies and gentlemen!
I listened with interest to the speech by the Commissioner of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Human Rights, A.E. Lastaev, dedicated to the problems of combating torture and other forms of ill-treatment in the Republic of Kazakhstan. He demonstrated a detailed picture of the Kazakh state and society's counteraction to torture, showed what real measures are being taken in the country to combat torture, analyzed the areas of activity to minimize them and eliminate them in practice in the future.
The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Kazakhstan provides assistance to the Head of the Kazakh State in organizing the implementation of human rights in the country, including the fight against torture. It is well known that President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K. Tokayev’s political reform agenda and full implementation of those reforms included the ongoing efforts to prevent cases torture in prisons or in other places of detention through laws and in practice.
And we as the civil society have encouraged the government to hold perpetrators of torture accountable. We have been involved into the drafting and, later, in implementing Presidential Decree on Human Rights and Rule of Law. This Decree includes the Action Plan that outlines legal steps that Kazakhstan has already made to align domestic legal framework with its international commitments.
Thus, we have: 1) differentiated torture and inhumane or degrading treatment in the body of national laws; 2) aligned forensic and psychological research with the Istanbul Protocol; 3) incorporated zero-tolerance policy towards such abuses in the Criminal Code.
As the result, over the cause of last years, more than 160 law-enforcement officials have been found guilty of torture in Kazakhstan. These are historic numbers for our region with Kazakhstan becomes the only country prosecuting its law enforcement officials for torture and keep them responsible by serving long-years sentences in prisons.
The Commissioner of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Human Rights, as we learned from his speech, proceeds from the fact that freedom from torture is an absolute right of every person and citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, that the Republic of Kazakhstan is guided by the principle of zero tolerance for torture and other forms of ill-treatment, that the country should pursue a policy of prevention and the consistent and steady practical eradication of torture. These ideas have become leading in the work of the Kazakh Ombudsman primarily because the Republic of Kazakhstan became a party to the Convention against Torture in 1998, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2005, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in 2008, which we are pleased to discuss today within the walls of this universal international organization (UN), which is directly related to the birth of these necessary and useful international legal acts of our time.
It should be noted that in the Ombudsman's speech was said that in the country, the activities of criminal prosecution authorities and places of detention are monitored by more than 45,000 video cameras in 78 institutions, the presence of which makes it possible to prevent torture, and the footage becomes evidence in criminal cases of torture. The continuous functioning of the National Preventive Mechanism, which has been operating and proving its effectiveness in places of detention in the country for more than 10 years, contributes to the prevention and eradication of torture. Medical care in these institutions has become completely independent of law enforcement agencies and subordinated exclusively to the structures of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which grants medical workers the right to report directly to the prosecutor through appropriate terminals if there are grounds to believe that the person under investigation, the defendant, the convicted was subjected to torture.
I share the position of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Kazakhstan that it is necessary to talk not only about the successes in the fight against torture, about the statistics of bringing perpetrators of torture to justice, but also about the problems of further combating torture, which he has formulated quite professionally. But he not only formulates them, but also offers reasonable solutions to them. It is necessary to strengthen the implementation of IT technologies in order to improve the work on ensuring order and discipline in temporary detention facilities and penitentiary institutions, as well as in the preparation of reports and analytical developments. The Ombudsman's proposal to increase the size and the need to improve the mechanism for compensation of harm from torture should be supported.
As a representative of civil society, I would like to propose that a separate article on stalking be included in the current Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Such a criminal law article becomes necessary when a person who has been tortured, after serving his sentence after several years, would like to bring his executioners to criminal responsibility for the torture they committed, but cannot, because the torturers themselves and their colleagues in the police institution threaten him with torture to put him behind bars again. In order for a victim of torture to be able to withstand such threats and actions, it is necessary that a court decision based on this article on stalking forbids approaching and threatening the victim within a radius of 15 meters: approaching the victim within a radius of 14 meters or less with threats creates criminal liability for the menacers under the stalking article.
I take this opportunity to participate in the event on the prevention and elimination of torture at the United Nations, which includes UN committees on various human rights, including the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Committee against Torture, and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture. As an ex-member of the UN Human Rights Committee in 2012, I would like to make one suggestion. For some reason, all the UN committees, including the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture, declare year after year that their decisions are advisory in nature. This leads to the fact that many States do not consider it possible and necessary to implement these decisions. This leads to the fact that thousands and thousands of decisions of the UN Committees are being taken in vain. I am making a proposal to declare these decisions of the UN Committee against Torture and the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Committees binding on all States parties to the relevant international covenants and conventions on human rights. The basis for such a proposal is the international legal principle: international treaties must be implemented. States have signed and ratified 60-70 pacts, conventions, and agreements on human rights and have undertaken obligations to strictly comply with these international legal instruments. And the high-level international professionals who sit on these UN Committees against Torture and other Human Rights Committees only assist States in the implementation of these international legal acts on human and civil rights and freedoms.
With this approach, judicial or other authorized bodies, including authorized bodies of Kazakhstan, will have to automatically implement these decisions of the UN Committee against Torture. This will be another means of curbing acts of torturein the territory of almost every State.
In a certain sense, it will become easier for a human rights institution, such as the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to ensure compliance with all international and domestic standards for combating torture in practice.
Thank you for your attention.