ICC Note:
“Two new laws seriously restricting freedom of religion or belief were passed by Kazakhstan’s Senate, the upper house of Parliament on September 29. Both laws now only need President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s signature to become law,” Forum 18 News Service reports.
By Felix Corley
9/29/2011 Kazakhstan (Forum 18 News Service) – Two new laws seriously restricting freedom of religion or belief were passed by Kazakhstan’s Senate, the upper house of Parliament, today (29 September). Both laws now only need President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s signature to become law. Previous similar laws were rejected by the Constitutional Council as “unconstitutional”, and were also heavily criticised by an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Legal Opinion for breaking the country’s human rights commitments. Both the current laws have been in preparation for many months, have been rushed through Parliament with great speed, and are now with the President for signature. Commenting on the previous OSCE Legal Opinion, Zhanna Onlasheva of the state Agency for Religious Affairs, who drafted the laws, told Forum 18 News Service that “We set out our position to the OSCE that we didn’t agree with their view. We stuck to our position”. The laws were passed as the Military Affairs Directorate of Almaty’s Turksib District wrote to local religious communities, ordering them to “provide information on citizens on record as followers of non-traditional religions and radical religious views” – without being able to define what these are – and a Protestant was fined for praying for someone else’s health.
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