The onus is on Kazakh’s government to reach a just conclusion to the case of a prominent human rights defender, a European parliamentarian said today. His report will give cause for concern to member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as they prepare for its forthcoming summit.

Matteo Mecacci, rapporteur of the OSCE parliamentary assembly’s human rights committee, met last week with imprisoned human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis at a prison colony in Ust-Kamenogorsk.

The Zhovtis case raises serious questions about the right to a fair trial in Kazakhstan, said Mecacci, in a report to assembly president Joao Soares. Zhovtis had been subjected to a sentence he does not deserve, he added, and the Kazakh OSCE Chairmanship has a special responsibility to ensure that OSCE commitments are respected.

Zhovtis, director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, was sentenced to four years in prison for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car. Observers considered the prosecution to be politically-motivated and the legal proceedings deeply flawed.

Mecacci expressed his disappointment that the Kazakh authorities blocked details of the visit from appearing on the website of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which it currently chairs.

OSCE member states are currently planning their participation in the first OSCE summit in over a decade, notes Sam Patten, senior program manager for Eurasia at Freedom House.

“Unless the Kazakhs start showing a little more respect for the democratic institutions the OSCE was conceived to support, lending credibility to their ceremonial summit hardly seems to send the right message,” he writes.

Bangkok braced for further violence today, as Red Shirt protesters gathered for the funeral of a dissident general and the government rejected talks, while troops prepared to march on the demonstrators’ main camp. Some activists spoke ominously of Thailand’s own Tiananmen.

The escalating violence has prompted speculation that the Red Shirt protesters could resort to armed resistance and that the conflict could spread into the countryside.

Ironically, Thailand’s election to the U.N. Human Rights Council last week demonstrated the reservoir of international support the Abhisit Vejjajiva government still retains despite what analyst Kavi Chongkittavorn calls its “vibrant — some would say bloody — democracy and moral standards.”

The government is indignant that Kurt Campbell, US Assistant Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, recently met with opposition figures, he writes. But some form of international mediation is required to end the standoff (the context of which is outlined here and here).

Drawing on Indonesia’s experience in East Timor and Aceh, Thailand should voluntarily invite ASEAN representatives to observe a national reconciliation process and monitor future elections, says Chongkittavorn, a member of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy:

……..as an open society, Thailand’s credibility rests on its openness and freedom of expression. Shut-down media outlets should be allowed to operate again with some conditions and online media should be unfiltered. Thailand still has the resilience to deal with all kinds of adversities.

The Red Shirts’ demand for UN-mediated talks reflects their lack of faith in the country’s political elite and domestic institutions, says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, who suggests that matters will likely deteriorate.

“Violence begets violence,” he said. “There is always a chance of a negotiated solution, and they are talking behind the scenes all the time, but we will see more violence.”

The Abhisit government appears unlikely to concede demands for fresh elections even though such a move would be consistent with Thailand’s gradual political evolution from absolute monarchy to an albeit-flawed democracy.

Whatever happens, Thai politics has changed irrevocably, writes Joshua Kurlantzick:

Most critically, there has been a fundamental change in Thai politics, in which the poor and those alienated from institutions like the army, civil service, and palace finally have demanded their rights. If the middle class and elites do not recognize that Thai politics has changed, and that they must change along with it, more demonstrations will break out, perhaps in the run-up to the next election–set for the fall, but still uncertain.

A senior OSCE parliamentarian has met with imprisoned human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis at a prison colony in Ust-Kamenogorsk.

The Kazakh government has reportedly blocked details of the visit from appearing on the website of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which it currently chairs.

“Mr. Zhovtis was in good condition but disappointed in the Supreme Court’s refusal to recognize the lack of fairness in the legal proceedings,” said Matteo Mecacci (Italy), rapporteur of the OSCE parliamentary assembly’s human rights committee.

Zhovtis, director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, was sentenced to four years in prison for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car. Observers considered the prosecution to be politically-motivated and the legal proceedings deeply flawed.

Kazakh’s court and political institutions had failed “to deliver a fair and proportionate judgment in a situation that to independent observers does not entail criminal responsibility,” said Mecacci.

Furthermore, he added, “at a time when the Kazakh parliament has approved even wider powers for the President of the Republic, it is important to reaffirm that all OSCE states have committed themselves to respect the rule of law and the separation of powers, and that a special responsibility rests with its OSCE Chairmanship.”

Kazakhstan assumed its controversial one-year chairmanship of the OSCE at the start of this year. Human rights and democracy advocates complain that the first former Soviet republic to chair the 56-nation grouping is using its tenure to legitimate its “soft authoritarian” system.

“In [the capital] Astana, they see Kazakhstan’s recognition as chairman of the OSCE equally as recognition of the political system that’s taken shape here,” one analyst observes.

The world’s democracy and human rights advocates need to develop genuinely global responses and new approaches to deal with the current authoritarian offensive against fundamental freedoms of association and expression, former Czech President Vaclav Havel told a Washington meeting last night.

There is a compelling moral imperative for solidarity with dissidents within totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, from Cuba to Burma, North Korea to Belarus, he said, addressing the opening session of the Human Rights Summit by video link from Prague.

The international human rights community should develop a coordinated campaign to nominate Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize. There is no more fitting recipient than the imprisoned dissident, a co-author of the Charter 08 democratic manifesto modeled on the Czech dissidents’ Charter 77.

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo also highlighted the need for cross-border approaches.

“Democracy has no nationality”, he said, insisting on the indivisibility of human rights struggles, whether pressing for the release of dissidents like Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi or for the social and economic rights of Latin America’s poor.

Toledo invoked his personal history, rising from a poor, indigenous family of 16 children – several of whom died young – to call for a “democracy that delivers”, that addresses the material needs and socio-economic inequalities that disempower citizens who nevertheless may enjoy certain constitutional freedoms.  

The speeches by Havel and Toledo, both leading democracy and civil society activists before coming to office, launched the 2010 Washington Human Rights Summit organized by Freedom House and Human Rights First.

Under the rubric of Affirming Fundamental Freedoms, the meeting will produce an action plan for the Obama Administration, reflecting the deliberations of a new generation of dissidents and human rights advocates with U.S. policy makers, representatives of democratic governments, and opinion-formers and activists from the media, think tanks, academia, and civil society. 

Participants include several grantees and partners of the National Endowment for Democracy, including Yuri Dzhibladze, president of Russia’s Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, Carlos Ponce of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy, and Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China.

The meeting will also receive a special statement from imprisoned democracy advocate Yevgeny Zhovtis, head of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights, a member of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev makes a rather bizarre attempt to justify the incarceration of human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis, comparing his case to that of celebrated film director Roman Polanski. 

Zhovtis was sentenced to four years in prison for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car.

“I don’t even want to comment on this issue,” he said. “Switzerland, for example, is not extraditing Mr. Polanksi — but that is not being discussed at such levels.”

The Zhovtis issue dogged Saudabayev during his trip to Washington and has tainted Kazakhstan’s controversial accession to the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the continent’s leading human rights watchdog.

Democracy advocates and U.S. Senators used the occasion of his visit to call on the Kazahk authorities to release Zhovtis, the director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy.

The Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy called on the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan to honor the appeal submitted on 27 January 2010 by Zhovtis’s defense team. The human rights activist is a member of the movement’s Steering Committee.

“It is now clear that Kazakhstani authorities exploited this unfortunate accident to politicize the investigation and punish Mr. Zhovtis for his human rights work, evidenced by the fact that the investigation and the subsequent trial were rife with procedural violations,” said a World Movement statement.

Democracy advocates and politicians are demanding the release of human rights activist Yevgeniy Zhovtis.

Leading politicians are joining with democracy and civil society groups in calling on authorities in Kazakhstan to release jailed human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis.

His case was raised on Capitol Hill today at a hearing on Kazakhstan’s controversial leadership of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) featuring the country’s Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev.

The Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy called on the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan to honor the appeal submitted on 27 January 2010 by Zhovtis’s defense team. The human rights activist is a member of the movement’s Steering Committee and director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Zhovtis was sentenced to four years in prison for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car.

“It is now clear that Kazakhstani authorities exploited this unfortunate accident to politicize the investigation and punish Mr. Zhovtis for his human rights work, evidenced by the fact that the investigation and the subsequent trial were rife with procedural violations,” the World Movement states.

Senators John Kerry (D-Mass), Robert Casey (D-Penn) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland) expressed their concern “that Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Freedom House, as well as Kazakh rights organizations, have raised questions about the investigation and trial that led to this verdict and allege that Mr. Zhovtis did not have the opportunity to exercise fully his right to defend himself.”

The Open Society Institute urged the Almaty authorities to release Zhovtis and order a fresh investigation into the case.

“Zhovtis is one of Kazakhstan’s most dedicated human rights lawyers, and we are deeply disturbed that he has been imprisoned after an unfair trial,” said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

“With Kazakhstan chairing the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe this year, it needs to show that it respects basic standards of law and justice.”

At the Capitol Hill hearing, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) expressed his support for Kazakhstan, which presents itself as an emerging democracy, hosting a summit of OSCE heads of state this year provided the regime adhered to the grouping’s practice, including a “full review of OSCE commitments open to non-governmental organization participation”.

But he cited the country’s restrictive media law, poor electoral practice, and the detention of Zhovtis as “serious matters” to be confronted.

The hearing reflected Washington’s ambivalence towards the regime in Kazakhstan. As Eurasianet’s Joshua Kucera notes:

The problem is that different constituencies within the US government disagree on what Washington’s top priority should be: while some argue that the United States should push for Astana to adopt a faster democratization pace, others are seeking greater cooperation on security issues, in particular Kazakhstani assistance in shipping military equipment to Afghanistan.

“When they come in talking about an OSCE summit, we, and a lot of the OSCE members, are telling them the same thing: we want to see [democratization] progress,” one State Department official told EurasiaNet.

Kazakhstan’s OSCE chairmanship could set a disturbing precedent and example for the region, activists and analysts suggest.

“What the former Soviet space needs are positive examples for liberalization, but too often, the exact opposite trajectory is seen in practice,” writes Vyacheslav Abramov, an activist for media freedom in Kazakhstan, and head of MediaNet, a non-profit that provides training in investigative journalism:

Throughout the region, both human rights activists and international organizations monitoring human freedom around the world have experience similar repression. Often, states borrow tactics from one another, as is evidenced by the passage of similar measures to restrict speech, assembly, and electoral rights in Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. Should the Kazakhs be successful in their goal of holding the first OSCE summit in a decade, what message will that send to all the member states headed unequivocally in the wrong direction.

Kazakhstan has formally assumed its one-year chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Advocates of the authoritarian regime assuming the rotating chairmanship of the OSCE claimed that it would help create space for civil society and possibly even inch forward the country’s painfully slow and oft-deferred democratic reform.

But the first former Soviet republic to chair the 56-nation grouping is actively backsliding and now promises to use its tenure to dilute the organization’s commitment to democracy and human rights.

The regime considers its OSCE position to legitimate its “soft authoritarian” system.

“In [the capital] Astana, they see Kazakhstan’s recognition as chairman of the OSCE equally as recognition of the political system that’s taken shape here,” political analyst Dosym Satpayev told the BBC.

Its one-party parliament has adopted legislation that further restricts political and civil space, and the regime continues to harass and persecute its critics, as the case of imprisoned human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis attests.

Zhovtis, director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, was sentenced to four years in prison last month for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car.

Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabaev today stated his country’s intention to support all OSCE objectives, including security cooperation, economic development, and democracy and human rights.

But comments by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev suggest that he will push the grouping to focus more on security and economic development rather than democracy and human rights.

“The decisive question for the OSCE for the future will be whether it can convert into a structure that recognizes the diversity of the world in the 21st century,” he said, “or whether it will continue to be an organization segmented into blocs where the West remains aloof from the space ‘east of Vienna’.”

Some activists still believe the OSCE chairmanship may provide opportunities for exposing the state’s democratic deficiencies.

Tamara Kaleeva, of the Kazakh NGO Adil Soz, told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service today that the country’s OSCE tenure must not be allowed to gloss over its shortcomings in democracy and human rights.

“The problems that exist here in the realm of democracy do not speak well of Kazakhstan as the OSCE chairman,” she said. “OSCE member states should know what is happening in this country. Kazakhstan must try to improve the situation inside the country in accordance with OSCE principles.”

What do Liu Xiaobo, Tran Anh Kim, Evgeny Zhovtis, Emin Milli, and Adnan Hajizade have in common?

Find out here.

The prosecution of leading Kazakh democracy and human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis is politically motivated, new reports suggest.

Zhovtis, director of the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, was sentenced to four years in prison last month for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car.

His lawyers and a leading independent journalist told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service that the Kazakh authorities’ actions prove the political nature of the prosecution.  They note that a Supreme Court judge admitted that he did not read the verdict against Zhovtis but still said that it was correct.

Zhovtis is a member of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy. His case is the latest in a series of detentions and harassment of democracy and civil society activists in Central Asia that highlights the entrenched authoritarianism of the region’s regimes.

Kazakh human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis has been transferred to a labor camp in northeastern Kazakhstan, RFE/RL reports.

Zhovtis, director of the International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, was sentenced to four years in prison last month for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car.

On October 19, an appeals court upheld his conviction, which has been condemned as disproportionate. The United States and international human rights groups have expressed concern that his trial was politically motivated.

Camp OV-156/13 is about 1,000 miles from his Almaty home. His supporters say the fact that was transferred such a distance confirms suspicions that the authorities are using his case to intimidate critical voices.

A leading democracy activist, Zhovtis is a member of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy.