In Kazakhstan, people are dissatisfied with new draft law on rallies

The Kazakh public expresses indignation over the draft new law “On rallies”. According to the famous human rights activist, Director of the Kazakh International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Yevgeny Zhovtis, this bill is nothing more than a reservation for those who disagree. Zhovtis made this statement as part of the discussion of the concept of the bill in Almaty.

Recall, the order to develop a new law “On peaceful assemblies, rallies and processions” was given by the President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Tokaev in December last year.

“We should begin to introduce the notification principle of the organization of meetings, that corresponds to our Constitution,” the head of state said at the meeting of the National Council of Public Confidence (NCPC). “Rallies are permissible if they do not violate the law, do not violate public order and do not disturb citizens. This is my principled position. You know it, we will consolidate it legislatively. The time has come to instill a rally culture in the public mind, but people have to understand that rallies are not only a right, but also a responsibility. In my message in September, I already spoke about the need to improve the legislation on rallies. Today at the meeting of the NCPC, I want to say that in the framework of the implementation of the plan for the implementation of the presidential message, a draft law “On peaceful assemblies” has been developed. It will clearly define all forms of peaceful assembly, establish the competence of local elected bodies to determine specialized places, as well as concepts such as the status of the organizer, as well as the participant and observer, their rights and obligations.”

After two months the President gave the order, it turned out that the bill prepared by the Ministry of Information and Social Development (by the way, the head of the department, Dauren Abaev, was present at the public hearings on this law in Almaty) is very different from the draft that was prepared by the expert community and members of the NCPC.

“Today, the Minister of Information and Social Development (MISD), Dauren Abaev, arrived at the Public Council (PC) of Almaty,” political scientist Marat Shibutov, a member of the NCPC, wrote in social networks after the hearing. “He made a presentation of the draft law on peaceful assemblies and discussed it with members of the PC, human rights defenders, lawyers and civic activists. There was a very good discussion. A lot of media, people broadcasted on social networks. I made a comparison on the fundamental positions of the bill, that we prepared, and which was prepared by the MISD. How many coincidences are there between the bill on peaceful assemblies that we developed and which was developed by the MISD? In general, 0%. Moreover, the new MISD’s bill is even tougher than the current law of 1995. In this form, it cannot be passed”.

According to human rights activist, Yevgeny Zhovtis, this bill is nothing more than a reservation for those who disagree. It should be clarified that the mayor’s office of Almaty identified two places in the city for rallies: the Mahatma Gandhi Park and the cinema “Sary-Arka”. Holding rallies in other places is illegal.

“The authorities gave us special places where we can gather and express our opinion on a particular event or phenomenon,” said Zhovtis. “I do not know what Mahatma Gandhi and “Sary-Arka” did the authorities of Almaty wrong, that reservations for those who disagree are now named after them. I would like to say that we will try to provide our citizens with free communications with the state, with the authorities at any places, where this is possible. And not in some park, where they will not go for the most part anyway; this is already from practice. And it’s much more convenient to relieve tension by peaceful gatherings than to put people into some reservations that will be more annoying.”

According to the current law “On rallies”, people, wishing to hold a protest, procession or some other meeting, must first obtain permission from the local executive authority. The new draft law prescribes that you can do it without permits, it is enough to inform the authorities of your intentions. However, as it turned out, this norm does not apply to all peaceful assemblies, but only to those in which no more than 250 people are planning to participate. If more people gather for the picket, then the organizers will need to coordinate it with the authorities, and the application for holding will need to be submitted no later than 10-15 days before the meeting.

“And at the same time, people should provide with IIN (individual identification number) from individuals or BIN (business identification number) from a legal entity, the rally regulations, the number of participants, measures to ensure fire safety and medical care, the number of journalists who will be invited. In short, there is an opinion that the initiators will collect papers,” Zhovtis is outraged by the norms of the draft law.

In turn, journalist, Sergei Ponomarev, said that there are eight points in the law that are a clear hindrance to the work of journalists covering the rallies.

“Some of them are outrageous! It is forbidden to carry cold steel, firearms and other weapons, specially prepared, adapted items that can be used against the life and health of people or causing material damage to citizens and property of legal entities. But we are accredited journalists, we came there with our card and badge, which you had proposed that we approved in the authorized body. We are not bandits or terrorists!” Ponomarev expressed general indignation.

Journalists were also outraged by the norm, according to which, media workers are obliged at the request of the authorities to provide them with all the material filmed at rallies.

However, Dauren Abaev, after listening to the entire portion of criticism, assured that all proposals and comments would be taken into account; it is specially for this purpose that public hearings are held according to the norms of the law.

In turn, another member of the NCPC, political scientist Daniyar Ashimbaev, who was unable to attend the discussion of the bill, said in ACCA comment that the state perceives this law as a kind of defense line against the threat of the “Orange revolution”.

“It seems to me that the law should introduce an exhaustive list of prohibited topics (inciting ethnic and religious strife), and also provide for a mechanism to reduce tension if the rally could endanger the security of citizens and public order (for example, the right of the Prosecutor’s office to issue a warning or introduction of rally-mediation institute). It is also necessary to prepare a list of places where rallies and meetings cannot be held, and not vice versa. The order can be made consistent: the arbitration commission helps with the choice of date and place. It is also necessary to think over the procedure for regulating spontaneous meetings. So let the same arbitration commission deal with this issue in the field. By and large, the reasons for the rallies are given by the state, which does not need to create too comfortable conditions for listening to criticism,” the political scientist noted.