Manfred Nowak Acknowledges Kazakhstan Progress on Human Rights

VIENNA, February 9 /PRNewswire/ --
- No systematic torture - Situation better than in other CIS states
The Austrian UNO Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, acknowledges Kazakhstan's progress on adhering to human rights. The Central European country was "very well prepared" for the current Chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation In Europe (OSCE). This also meant that the human rights situation should be improved, said Nowak at a meeting with the APA [Austrian News Agency] on Tuesday. He would be submitting a report on Kazakhstan in March to the UNO Human Rights Committee in Genf.
Justice, the Public Prosecution Service and the administration of prisons had made "huge progress" in Kazakhstan. The situation for critical Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and journalists was better than in White Russia or even the Russian Federation, Nowak continued. He referred to the dangerous situation into which, for example, opponents of the holder of power Ramsan Kadyrov had fallen in the Czech Republic. "Opponents of Kadyrov live at risk, even abroad -- as the case of Umar Israilov, murdered in Vienna, showed. No cases where journalists were killed have been reported to me in Kazakhstan."
Nowak understands the decision to entrust Kazakhstan with the Chairmanship of the OSCE. "This is the correct decision if we want to see a successor state of the Soviet Union in this function. I do not believe that countries like Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Republic of Moldau or the Ukraine would be better suited."
Kazakhstan was at the centre of the Gulag in Soviet times, Nowak explained. The criminal law was still "very punitive" today, not embracing resocialisation preferring to "lock prisoners away." The more sever the sentence, the more restricted the opportunities and visiting rights of the prisoner would be. "This is counter-productive," criticised the UNO experts. Kazakhstan was, however, interested in becoming known as a state with European standards, and overcoming the inherited problems of Soviet times.
Nowak would not be drawn on the case of the former Kazakhstan Ambassador in Austria, Rakhat Aliyev, but he gave his basic views on the question of extradition to countries against which there had been accusations of torture. In his investigation he came to the conclusion that there were still cases of torture in Kazakhstan. The torture in Kazakhstan was however "neither systematic nor extensive." In virtually all countries of the world there were frequently suggestions of torture, even in Austria there had been a case of that kind, Nowak noted.
In connection with the principle of international law known as non-refoulement people should not be extradited to countries in which there was systematic torture, explained the leader of the Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights in Vienna. If an assessment of the human rights situation in certain countries were to conclude that there was no systematic torture "then I should look closely at each individual case." In this case the person who was to be extradited must substantiate the fact that he was threatened with torture.
J. Wills of Middle East Communications, +96594008806