Another scandal in the human rights sphere of Kazakhstan. Members of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) for the North Kazakhstan Region (NKR) voluntarily resigned in protest against their leader Marina Nistoliy.
As Alexander Danchev, a member of the NPM in the North Kazakhstan region, said on his page on social networks, the reason for leaving the national preventive mechanism was the loss of trust not only in Marina Nistoliy but also in the Commissioner for Human Rights in Kazakhstan, Elvira Azimova.
Recall that the National Preventive Mechanism is an independent body that visits institutions of the penitentiary system to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
In Kazakhstan, NPMs were established by law in July 2013. Kazakhstani human rights activists who are members of the NPM oppose torture and ill-treatment not only in organizations of the penitentiary system but also in the National Security Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as in healthcare institutions, medical and social organizations, and orphanages.
“In the North Kazakhstan region, public monitoring commissions (PMCs) can also visit colonies and special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These two human rights institutions are headed by Marina Nistoliy. She began to simply ignore the members of the NPM group. Alexander Danchev and Sergey Izmailov repeatedly asked her over the course of two months to bring information to the office of the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) and ask for permission to visit the Shoptykol special boarding school, because one of the girls living there complained of a toothache for two months, but she was not provided with medical assistance. Despite this strong argument, signaling the physical suffering of the child, which amounted to abuse, Nistoliy never reported this to the NCHR office. After a planned visit to this institution, the members of the NPM group revealed numerous egregious violations and turned to it with a proposal to draw up and send an appeal to the prosecutor’s office, but she ignored this proposal,” Danchev revealed the background of the conflict.
According to him, the last straw that overwhelmed the patience of the NPM participants was the fact that Nistoliy disrupted two planned visits – a temporary detention facility in the Aiyrtauskrm district and a strict regime colony ES 164/8 in the village of Saumakol in the same area.
“First, we went to the temporary detention center, where we learned from the head of the temporary detention center that Nistoliy called the Police Department and asked them not to let us visit, citing the fact that we allegedly violated the procedure for forming a group. We didn’t even try to go to the colony, we informed the NCHR office, from where we received an answer from Azimova to return home because the confidentiality of the visit was violated. Nistoli then accused us of violating the formation of a group for these visits, allegedly, we went without her knowledge. But in fact, she knew perfectly well that in July we had these visits, and that we were planning to go with this particular group, ”Danchev notes.
Most of all, the NPM participants were outraged by the fact that their leader warned the police about the visit, which is a direct violation of the principles of the preventive mechanism.
“Previously, Marina was lost and did not show much interest, but this time, when we went to this colony, she suddenly showed such a strong interest. Why did it happen? To prevent us from entering that colony by any means?” Danchev asks essentially rhetorical questions.
As a result, it came to the point that the participants of the NPM wrote a statement against their leader and submitted it to the Commissioner for Human Rights Elvira Azimova. However, Azimova, according to them, took the side of Nistoliy, and did not even consider their application and claims.
“Azimova constantly interrupted us and did not let us speak. The complaint we received against Nistoliy was never considered, but on the other hand, at the suggestion of Nistoliy, with the support of Azimova, a hail of accusations rained down on us. At the same time, according to Azimova, it followed that we do not have the right to engage in our public human rights activities, because we are members of the NPM. Dmitry Agapov tried to object to her and say that we are members of the NPM only at the time of visits to mandated institutions, and the rest of the time we do our work, but Azimova did not even listen to him, ”recalls Danchev.
As a result, according to him, the participants of the NPM for the North Kazakhstan region came to the conclusion that they no longer have the moral right to continue their activities and voluntarily resigned ahead of schedule.
“We want to draw public attention to the existing problem. After all, if we don’t announce it now, the system will simply try to hush up this problem, and the situation with respect for human rights will remain the same,” Danchev sums up.
It is also worth noting that human rights activists posted a video message on Youtube, in which they outlined their position on this issue. The response from Marina Nistoliy was immediate:
“On August 15, at about 9:00 am, Alexander Danchev, Sergey Izmailov and Dmitry Agapov received a phone call from the investigator of the Petropavlovsk Police Department Jamilya Sapargali. The investigator said that on August 14, a statement was received from Marina Nistoliy, allegedly Danchev, Izmailov, and Agapov posted a video message with false information. Now the police want to interrogate human rights defenders, for this, the investigator invited them to come to the city department (police department) and write an explanatory note,” the participants of the NPM in the North Kazakhstan region said.
