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DE RUEHTA #1161/01 1940206
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 130206Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5759
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE 1718
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1085
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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 1186
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RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 001161 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL, EUR/RPM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KDEM OSCE KZ
SUBJECT:  KAZAKHSTAN:  UNDER SECRETARY BURNS'S MEETING WITH CIVIL 
SOCIETY REPRESENTATIVES 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY: On July 10, Under Secretary of State for 
Political Affairs Bill Burns met in Astana with civil society 
leaders.  Burns told them that Kazakhstan's 2010 OSCE chairmanship 
presented unique opportunities for Kazakhstani civil society, and 
noted that President Nazarbayev had recently signed Kazakhstan's 
first National Action Plan on Human Rights.  The civil society 
activists remarked that the Action Plan was put together with 
significant input from NGOs, but said that its true worth will 
depend on its implementation.  Kazakhstan still needs to internalize 
and implement many international norms, they explained.  According 
to one participant, the executive branch dominates the other 
branches of government, and the legislature and the judiciary have 
little independence.  The civil society activists said they do 
operate relatively freely and do not face open intimidation, 
although some occasionally experience "nuanced and indirect 
pressure," like tax investigations and hefty fines for 
non-compliance with tax law.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) During his July 10 visit to Astana, Under Secretary Burns 
and delegation met with several representatives of Kazakhstani civil 
society:  Zauresh Batalova, head of the Polyton discussion club; 
Anara Ibrayeva, head of the Astana branch of the Human Rights 
Bureau; Sergei Belkin, president of the Confederation of Independent 
Trade Unions; Albert Lozovoy, head of the Astana office of the 
Pokoleniye pensioners' rights movement; and Meruert Kazbekova, head 
of the Union of Women Entrepreneurs. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Burns told the group that the bilateral partnership 
between Kazakhstan and the United States, while strong and growing, 
cannot be complete without a dialogue between the two countries' 
societies.  He said that Kazakhstan's upcoming OSCE chairmanship 
presents unique opportunities for Kazakhstani civil society.  Burns 
noted that President Nazarbayev recently signed Kazakhstan's first 
National Action Plan for Human Rights, and asked the participants to 
lay out what they perceive to be the most important objectives and 
challenges facing Kazakhstan in the area of democracy and human 
rights. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Anara Ibrayeva noted positively that the National Action 
Plan was drafted with significant input from NGOs like the Human 
Rights Bureau and the Almaty Helsinki Committee.  She said that 
Yevgeniy Zhovtis, the director of the Human Rights Bureau, authored 
the Plan's several chapters on civil and political rights.  She 
praised the Plan for giving specific recommendations to the 
government on how to improve legislation, institutions, and the 
implementation of human rights protections. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The Polyton Club's Batalova also said the Plan is a "good 
project," but argued that its true worth will only be proven on 
implementation.  Sometimes there can be a great distance between 
intention and action, she said.  In her view, Kazakhstan's priority 
for its 2010 OSCE Chairmanship should be to "internalize" 
international norms on human rights, such as those laid out in the 
UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Batalova suggested several areas where Kazakhstani 
legislation lags behind international standards.  In her view, 
electoral legislation is a "serious challenge."  The 2007 
constitutional amendments, which mandated that candidates to the 
Mazhilis (lower house of the parliament) be elected through party 
lists rather than directly, prevent those without a party 
affiliation from running for office, thus effectively excluding them 
from political participation.  There is no legal provision for 
independent candidates.  Batalova claimed that the same amendments 
transferred to the office of the President over 86 powers that had 
previously been the purview of the legislative and the judicial 
branches, which significantly weakened the Parliament's oversight 
over the Presidency and diluted its legislative powers.  She said 
that the judiciary is a weak counterweight to the President's 
office.  Kazakhstan needs to undertake significant reforms to 
separate the three branches of government, she asserted. 
 
 
ASTANA 00001161  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Pokoleniye's Lozovoy told the delegation that Kazakhstani 
legislation lagged behind international standards, and those of 
other CIS countries, in the benefits afforded to pensioners and 
World War II veterans.  He agreed with Batalova that the judiciary 
does not do enough to protect individual rights.  He said that his 
organization has lobbied the government for legislative changes that 
would create a fully independent judiciary and an expansion of 
powers for the Presidential Human Rights Commission. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Special Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director 
for Russia and Eurasia Michael McFaul asked the group whether there 
were cases of activists facing jail or physical threats for their 
work.  The civil society leaders agreed that they operate relatively 
freely and do not face open intimidation.  Ibrayeva asserted, 
however, that pressure from the authorities can sometimes be 
"nuanced and indirect."  Some of the examples of such "pressure," 
she said, are unannounced tax audits of NGOs and hefty penalty fines 
for those found non-compliant with tax law.  (NOTE:  The specific 
NGO she cited receives funding the U.S. National Endowment for 
Democracy, which does not fall under the U.S. Kazakhstan Bilateral 
Assistance Agreement.  END NOTE.)  She also mentioned the use of the 
Law on Extremism against some non-traditional religious minority 
groups.  Independent trade union head Belkin said that the 
authorities also frequently limit his organization's activities 
through the law on public assemblies -- specifically, its provisions 
that all public meetings must be approved by local authorities, who 
have the power to designate where those meetings can be held, which 
usually means on the outskirts of the relevant locale. 
 
HOAGLAND