Kazakhstan has embarked on a course to bring the national human rights protection system in line with the country's international obligations within the framework of the United Nations.
He abolished the death penalty and transferred the system of ensuring the rights of convicts to health protection to a civilian agency — the Ministry of Health.
He abolished the list of prohibited professions for women, introduced quotas for women in the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, facilitated the registration of political parties and religious organizations.
He ensured the election of local akims and began the process of systemic decentralization of power in the country.
He tightened criminal liability for torture, strengthened the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture, and introduced a legislative definition of torture and ill-treatment.
Not a little has been done in the field of ensuring social justice, equal distribution of state income, creating additional jobs for young people and vulnerable groups of the population, combating violence, vandalism and oligopoly.
But all this does not interest international human rights defenders and individual human rights activists in Kazakhstan. They are interested in the unknown names of criminals who violated the law, deceived and robbed ordinary people and they call them "political prisoners".
So, this term is often repeated both in the national information environment and in the international one, that in order to thoroughly understand this issue, I again had to review all the norms of international law, the national obligations of the country and the approaches of individual democracies to the issue of so-called "political prisoners".
What has been revealed:
First. There is no term "political prisoners" in international law, the UN charter and treaty documents. It is also absent from the national legislations of the world's leading democracies.
At the same time, international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, Freedom Now, and Freedom House are making persistent attempts to legalize this term and impose it on individual countries of the world, including Kazakhstan.
And paradoxically, instead of preventing this illegal process, some prominent human rights defenders in Kazakhstan not only support, but also actively promote this process within the country.
Second. Western countries have to respond to such calls. The US State Department, in its annual reports on the state of democracy in the world, has allocated a separate subsection "political prisoners" and even began the annual publication of their lists as part of the so-called "Without Just Cause" initiative.
The US Congress, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also, for unknown reasons, use this term in their letters, resolutions, declarations. And all this is happening with the active participation of fugitive oligarchs from Kazakhstan and NGOs funded by them.
The third. According to one of the European NGOs conducting a human rights investigation of well - known cases within the framework of "Cathargate", the purpose of such work is simple - to undermine the strategic nature of relations between Kazakhstan and Western countries, to push through sanctions regimes, which will directly damage the national economy and the interests of ordinary people.
According to US Secretary of State A. Blinken, countries "keep political prisoners to create an atmosphere of fear, self-censorship and suppression of political participation."
There are no such laws in Kazakhstan. Moreover, the country is the only Central Asian state in which such institutions as Radio Azattyk operate, the offices of the Eurasian Foundation, NDI and IRI are registered.
Kazakhstan is practically the only country in the region where our Western partners implement assistance programs not so much with the government as with civil society. This practice is not possible in the neighboring countries of the region for well-known reasons.
Despite the fact that a number of international and national NGOs consider their mission to "ensure democracy around the world", in reality they use this tool as a way of manipulation and pressure to promote their personal interests, including to obtain additional grants. They are just working out their order, and they are not interested in what follows – what irreversible consequences it entails. After all, they are not responsible for the people, their social and economic prosperity.
In conclusion, it should be noted that no international treaty currently uses the term "political prisoners", as this would be a direct violation of the UN - based principle of "non-interference in the internal affairs of a state."
He abolished the death penalty and transferred the system of ensuring the rights of convicts to health protection to a civilian agency — the Ministry of Health.
He abolished the list of prohibited professions for women, introduced quotas for women in the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, facilitated the registration of political parties and religious organizations.
He ensured the election of local akims and began the process of systemic decentralization of power in the country.
He tightened criminal liability for torture, strengthened the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture, and introduced a legislative definition of torture and ill-treatment.
Not a little has been done in the field of ensuring social justice, equal distribution of state income, creating additional jobs for young people and vulnerable groups of the population, combating violence, vandalism and oligopoly.
But all this does not interest international human rights defenders and individual human rights activists in Kazakhstan. They are interested in the unknown names of criminals who violated the law, deceived and robbed ordinary people and they call them "political prisoners".
So, this term is often repeated both in the national information environment and in the international one, that in order to thoroughly understand this issue, I again had to review all the norms of international law, the national obligations of the country and the approaches of individual democracies to the issue of so-called "political prisoners".
What has been revealed:
First. There is no term "political prisoners" in international law, the UN charter and treaty documents. It is also absent from the national legislations of the world's leading democracies.
At the same time, international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, Freedom Now, and Freedom House are making persistent attempts to legalize this term and impose it on individual countries of the world, including Kazakhstan.
And paradoxically, instead of preventing this illegal process, some prominent human rights defenders in Kazakhstan not only support, but also actively promote this process within the country.
Second. Western countries have to respond to such calls. The US State Department, in its annual reports on the state of democracy in the world, has allocated a separate subsection "political prisoners" and even began the annual publication of their lists as part of the so-called "Without Just Cause" initiative.
The US Congress, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also, for unknown reasons, use this term in their letters, resolutions, declarations. And all this is happening with the active participation of fugitive oligarchs from Kazakhstan and NGOs funded by them.
The third. According to one of the European NGOs conducting a human rights investigation of well - known cases within the framework of "Cathargate", the purpose of such work is simple - to undermine the strategic nature of relations between Kazakhstan and Western countries, to push through sanctions regimes, which will directly damage the national economy and the interests of ordinary people.
According to US Secretary of State A. Blinken, countries "keep political prisoners to create an atmosphere of fear, self-censorship and suppression of political participation."
There are no such laws in Kazakhstan. Moreover, the country is the only Central Asian state in which such institutions as Radio Azattyk operate, the offices of the Eurasian Foundation, NDI and IRI are registered.
Kazakhstan is practically the only country in the region where our Western partners implement assistance programs not so much with the government as with civil society. This practice is not possible in the neighboring countries of the region for well-known reasons.
Despite the fact that a number of international and national NGOs consider their mission to "ensure democracy around the world", in reality they use this tool as a way of manipulation and pressure to promote their personal interests, including to obtain additional grants. They are just working out their order, and they are not interested in what follows – what irreversible consequences it entails. After all, they are not responsible for the people, their social and economic prosperity.
In conclusion, it should be noted that no international treaty currently uses the term "political prisoners", as this would be a direct violation of the UN - based principle of "non-interference in the internal affairs of a state."