Estonia welcomes the delegation of the Republic of Kazakhstan to its third UPR session.
We welcome the steps taken by the Republic of Kazakhstan to implement the recommendations of the previous UPR process and encourage continuing its efforts in that regard.
Estonia commends Kazakhstan for amendments to selected legislative acts pertaining to the functions of child protection organizations and urge the government also to explicitly prohibit the corporal punishment of children in all settings.
Persistent restrictions to freedom of expression online and offline, including by still classifying defamation as a crime in the new Criminal Code of 2015, remain of concern.
Moreover, we are concerned that the Internet Law of 2009 restricts the freedom of expression online by way of criminalizing a variety of online activities and by way of setting severe sanctions for said violations.
We invite the Republic of Kazakhstan to review its laws and regulations to ensure they are in conformity with its international human rights obligations.
Estonia recommends the Government of Kazakhstan to:
- accede to and fully align its national legislation with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC);
- decriminalize defamation;
- abolish the death penalty and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR (ICCPR-OP2);
- bring Article 20(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan in line with Article 19 of the ICCPR.
We wish the delegation of Kazakhstan a successful review meeting.
Thank you!