To the Pres­id­ent K.-J. Tokayev

To the inter­na­tion­al community

Statement Of Human Rights Groups On Events in Kazakhstan

Janu­ary 5, 2022

On Janu­ary 2–4, 2022, ral­lies are held in many cit­ies and rur­al areas of Kaza­kh­stan. Express­ing one’s will in the form of protest is the sov­er­eign right of the people of Kaza­kh­stan and each of its cit­izens.  The pro­test­ers are demand­ing not only a reduc­tion in the price of gas, but the resig­na­tion of the gov­ern­ment, the remov­al of Naz­ar­bayev and his fam­ily from gov­ern­ing the coun­try, the release of polit­ic­al pris­on­ers, the return of the stolen wealth to the people and polit­ic­al reforms with the par­ti­cip­a­tion of rep­res­ent­at­ives of the oppos­i­tion and civil society.

We are receiv­ing alarm­ing sig­nals about the pos­sible use of weapons and viol­ence against pro­test­ers, as well as the use of the armed forces of Kaza­kh­stan by the author­it­ies to sup­press the protest.

We, human rights defend­ers, appeal to the lead­er­ship of the Repub­lic of Kaza­kh­stan to stop force­ful and mil­it­ary meth­ods of sup­press­ing legit­im­ate and jus­ti­fied indig­na­tion of pro­test­ers, and call for imme­di­ate meas­ures to be taken for a peace­ful set­tle­ment of the con­flict through negotiations.

Regard­less of the situ­ation, the state is obliged to guar­an­tee every cit­izen their rights and freedoms, and first of all the right to life, phys­ic­al integ­rity, free­dom of speech and assembly. Detained pro­test­ers must be released immediately.

We call on the author­it­ies to renounce viol­ence and not to repeat the mis­takes of Decem­ber 2011, when unarmed people were shot in the city of Zhana­ozen and the vil­lage of Shetpe.

The main task of the author­it­ies should be to restore the trust of the people, for this it is urgent to ensure access to mobile and Inter­net com­mu­nic­a­tions, to stop the per­se­cu­tion of act­iv­ists, inde­pend­ent media and journalists.

We appeal to inter­na­tion­al organ­iz­a­tions and the media provide as much as pos­sible cov­er­age of the events tak­ing place in the Repub­lic of Kaza­kh­stan, to break the inform­a­tion block­ade, to take an act­ive part in mon­it­or­ing the observ­ance of human rights and their protection;

We also appeal to the dip­lo­mat­ic mis­sions of demo­crat­ic coun­tries to call on the author­it­ies of Kaza­kh­stan to dia­logue and make every effort to peace­fully resolve the cur­rent conflict.

Free­dom of Euras­ia, Austria

Liberty, Kaza­kh­stan

Ar.Rukh.Khak, Kaza­kh­stan

Coali­tion of Civil Soci­ety of Kaza­kh­stan “Dongelek Ustel”, Kazakhstan

School of Law, Kyrgyzstan

Pub­lic Organ­iz­a­tion “Expert Group “SOVA”, Ukraine

Asso­ci­ation of Cent­ral Asia, Sweden

Char­it­able Found­a­tion for Assist­ance to Pris­on­ers and Their Fam­il­ies “Imprisoned Rus­sia”, Rus­si­an Federation

Euras­ia Demo­cracy Ini­ti­at­ive, USA

Turk­men Ini­ti­at­ive for Human Rights

Insti­tute of Pub­lic Ana­lys­is, Kyrgyzstan

Turk­meni­aUnite

The Cen­ter for Civil Liber­ties, Ukraine

Pro­ject “No Bor­ders”, Ukraine