Kazakhstan failure to meet its commitment to initiate democratic reform threatens to undermine the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) when the oil-rich state assumes its chairmanship in 2010, according to a new report from Freedom House.
“The OSCE is a critical player in efforts to promote democracy and human rights in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union,” notes Jeffrey Goldstein, the group’s senior program manager for Central Asia. “Kazakhstan’s poor performance threatens to undermine the OSCE’s reputation and effectiveness, even as the region faces new threats from a resurgent Russia.”
President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s regime promised OSCE members to reform parliament, electoral laws and political party registration requirements. But progress has been minimal.
The country’s democrats face an especially difficult constellation of factors, activists complain. “There are four enemies of human rights: oil, gas, the war on terror and geopolitical considerations,” said Yevgeny A. Zhovtis of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law. “And we have all four.”
Coincidentally, on Oct. 3, I received a press release from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, that begins as follows: “The Kazakh parliament has moved decisively toward passage of a draft law governing religious communities that would restrict rather than strengthen protections of freedom of religion or belief. The law follows the example of other former Soviet republics that have increased legal and other restrictions on freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. . . . The law, which still must be acted on by the upper chamber of parliament before going to the Kazakh president for signature, will introduce more restrictive registration requirements for all religious groups, reduce the number of religious communities permitted to operate in Kazakhstan, and increase the penalties for members of unregistered communities. It will increase the minimum number of members of religious organizations necessary to register from 10 to 50. According to the law, smaller communities could not teach or profess their religion, own property, or rent public space for religious activities. All contributions from foreigners and anonymous donors would be prohibited.”
For the full press release, go to: http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2293&Itemid=1.