Kazakhstan: lessons learnt from the January 2022 events EU Reporter
Tag: January
‘New Kazakhstan’ Needs Independent Inquiry on January Events
(Berlin) – Kazakhstan’s president Kasym-Jomart Tokaev used a major policy speech on March 16, 2022 to promote a “New Kazakhstan” but fumbled on how the government will remedy the grave human rights violations during protests and violence in January, Human Rights Watch said today. The government needs to make a commitment to establish an independent hybrid body involving national and international experts, to investigate the deaths of 230 people and other abuses.
“The whole scope of human rights violations during the January events should be effectively, independently, and impartially investigated,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It is deeply disappointing that President Tokaev did not use his speech to establish an independent investigation into what happened and to bring those responsible to justice. He should act quickly to rectify this.”
The president instead highlighted the Interdepartmental Investigative Task Force and its ongoing investigation. Its preliminary results claim that the January events were an attempted coup, with some officials taking part. Tokaev emphasized that all those responsible would be held accountable regardless of their official position.
But Tokaev neither acknowledged that the Task Force is not an independent body nor gave any indication that the killings and allegations of torture by security forces would be otherwise independently investigated.
Human Rights Watch has documented Kazakhstan’s failure on many occasions to carry out effective investigations into serious human rights violations or to bring those responsible to justice, including with respect to killings in Zhanaozen in 2011 and the subsequent trials and convictions. Given the authorities’ history of failure in this regard, the government should invite international experts to be part of the investigation. Such a hybrid national-international investigation may offer the best opportunity for these efforts to be successful.
According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, 230 people were killed in the January events, including 19 security officials. The office has said that 149 of those killed were “engaged in attacks on government buildings” while only 20 “accidentally” came under fire. Local human rights defenders say that numbers of those “accidently” killed are higher. In his speech, Tokaev blamed “terrorists” for killing civilians.
Tokaev announced several reform plans, including to remove the death penalty provision from the Constitution, and to revise procedures for political parties to register. The test of any reform of this kind will be whether opposition parties will be able to register.
In a positive step, the president also instructed the prosecutor general to study criminalizing violence against women and children, but what is needed is action, not more study, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch has long urged Kazakhstan to criminalize domestic violence as a stand-alone offense.
In a troubling move, Tokaev rejected calls to reform the law on freedom of assembly, notwithstanding the government’s failure to protect this fundamental right in line with human rights standards.
Regarding the January events, the UN and several governments in March have reiterated their calls on Kazakhstan to establish an independent investigation. At the 49th session of the Human Rights Council, currently underway in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that an investigation should “be thoroughly and independently conducted, delivering accountability.”
The European Union expressed concern “about the violence in Kazakhstan last January and commend[ed] the commitment to investigate the situation.” Switzerland called for an “independent inquiry to be put in place to examine alleged violations of human rights,” and Luxemburg “strongly condemn[ed] the disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters in Kazakhstan.”
Human Rights Watch documented that the Kazakh security forces used excessive force on at least four occasions between January 4 and 6, including lethal force such as shooting at protesters and rioters who posed no immediate threat. Security forces appear to have killed at least 10 people in this way, and the death toll in these incidents is probably much higher.
Human Rights Watch has also documented that Kazakh security forces arbitrarily arrested peaceful protesters and others, and ill-treated and tortured some detainees, including with beatings with batons and electric shocks. According to official figures, 8 people detained in connection with the January events have died in pretrial detention centers and 234 criminal cases have been initiated on allegations of torture. Tokaev acknowledged the use of torture during the January events and condemned it as a barbaric practice.
An appropriate fact-finding investigation needs to be well-resourced, genuinely independent and transparent, and have access to government information. The scope of its mandate should allow it to examine the full circumstances around the deaths including the potential responsibility of all those in security forces or other government agents for these violations, as well as allegations of torture and other abuses of those detained in connection to the January events. Its findings should be made public.
Kazakhstan should commit to acting on the conclusions of the investigation by providing victims with a remedy for the violations and holding those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said. Should the government of Kazakhstan fail again to conduct an effective investigation that meets international standards, other bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council should consider taking steps to do so.
“President Tokaev has made some concrete suggestions on the country’s future, but without an accounting for the grave abuses that occurred in January, these reform ideas appear hollow,” Williamson said. “The president should demonstrate that his commitment to the truth is more than lip service and establish a hybrid independent investigation into the January events.”
Kazakhstan: Set Independent Inquiry into January Events
(Berlin) – The Kazakhstan government should invite international experts to join its domestic investigative efforts into serious human rights violations during the January 2022 protests and violence to ensure that the results are seen as credible, Human Rights Watch said today. The statement followed a meeting between Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Kazakhstan’s foreign affairs minister, and Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
“Kazakhstan has announced investigations and commissions to examine the January events, but the government has a long history of such efforts failing to bring accountability or justice,” Roth said. “A hybrid investigation, with international experts joining national investigators, offers the best opportunity for these new investigative efforts to be more successful.”
Roth raised those points during the conversation with Foreign Affairs Minister Tileuberdi. According to Kazakhstan authorities, at least 225 people were killed, and many injured in early January in shootings by security forces and violence in Almaty and elsewhere. Those killed included 19 members of the security forces. Thousands of people were detained. Human Rights Watch and other groups have documented dozens of cases of arbitrary detention, mistreatment and torture in detention, and lack of access to lawyers.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, several UN human rights experts, the United States, and the European Union’s human rights envoy have called for an independent investigation into the January events. The best way to guarantee that independence is through a hybrid national-international investigation, Human Rights Watch said.
Such a fact-finding investigation needs to be well-resourced, genuinely independent and transparent, and have access to government information, Human Rights Watch said. The scope of its mandate should allow it to examine the circumstances around the deaths in the context of the protests in Almaty on January 4 through 6, the possible responsibility of police forces or others for these violations, and allegations of torture and other abuses. Kazakhstan should commit to receiving and considering the conclusions of the investigation, providing a remedy for the violations, and holding those responsible to account.
It is important for international personnel involved in the investigation to be able to make a sustained and dedicated long-term commitment to the effort, Human Rights Watch said. Roth suggested to the government that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the UN Human Rights Council are possible sources of support and expertise. Short-term visits by international observers, while important, will not yield the genuine partnership that sustained involvement by dedicated personnel will provide.
Human Rights Watch has documented Kazakhstan’s failure on many occasions to carry out effective investigations into serious human rights violations or to bring those responsible to justice, including with respect to the killings in Zhanaozen in 2011 and the subsequent trials and convictions.
Human Rights Watch has published two reports about the January events. Kazakhstan: Killings, Excessive Use of Force in Almaty documents that the Kazakh security forces used excessive force on at least four occasions, including lethal force such as shooting at protesters and rioters who posed no immediate threat. At least 10 people appear to have been killed in this way by security forces, and the likely death toll in these incidents is probably much higher.
The second report, Kazakhstan: Protesters Arbitrarily Arrested, Beaten, documents that Kazakh security forces arbitrarily arrested peaceful protesters and others, ill-treated and tortured some detainees, including with beatings with batons and electric shocks.
Should the government fail to conduct an effective investigation that meets international standards, Human Rights Watch said, OSCE members should invoke the Moscow Mechanism, an OSCE investigation procedure, and UN Human Rights Council members should address the issues at their next session.
“The government of Kazakhstan under president Kasym-Jomart Tokaev says it is committed to a new approach to economic and political affairs following the January events,” Roth said. “Accounting for grave recent abuses needs to be part of this process. To avoid a deep stain on its record, Kazakhstan’s investigation should meet the highest international standards.”
