Kazakhstan

17 million people
10,770 USD GNI (PPP)
Internet:
Partly Free
Press:
Not Free
Not Free

Population and GNI data source

News & Updates

Press Release

Freedom House Calls for Investigation Into Attack on Kazakh Journalist

Apr 20 2012 - 1:49pm


Lukpan Akmedyarov (Photo Credit | Askarok)

Freedom House deplores the brutal attack on Lukpan Akmedyarov, a prominent Kazakhstani journalist known for his outspoken criticism of local and national authorities, and urges the government of Kazakhstan to  swiftly and thoroughly investigate the attack and bring all involved to justice.

Issues: 
Freedom of Expression, Media Freedom
Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia
Freedom Alert

Freedom House Welcomes Release of Kazakh Journalist Vinyavskiy

Mar 15 2012 - 2:59pm

Freedom House is pleased that Igor Vinyavskiy, editor of the Kazakhstani opposition newspaper "Vzglyad," was given amnesty and released from the Committee of National Security's detention center just hours ago.  The district court in Almaty decided to close the criminal investigation against Vinyaskiy.

Issues: 
Civil Society, Freedom of Expression, Media Freedom
Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia
Testimonies

Kazakhstan: As Stable as Its Government Claims?

Jan 25 2012 - 10:40am

Susan Corke, director for Eurasia programs at Freedom House, testified before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe about Kazakhstan’s growing instability.

Issues: 
Civil Society, Human Rights Defense, Rule of Law
Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia
Press Release

Freedom House Condemns Arrest of Kazakh Activists and Journalist

Jan 24 2012 - 12:49pm

Freedom House condemns the arrest of opposition activists and an independent journalist in Kazakhstan and calls for their immediate release. These arrests follow parliamentary elections on January 15 and investigations into large-scale December uprisings.

Issues: 
Freedom of Association, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights Defense, Media Freedom, Rule of Law
Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia

Experts

Susan Corke

Director for Eurasia Programs


Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia

Robert Herman

Vice President for Regional Programs

Issues: 
Civil Society, Democratic Governance, Freedom of Association, U.S. Foreign Policy
Regions: 
Sub-Saharan Africa

Sylvana Habdank-Kołaczkowska

Project Director of "Nations in Transit"

Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia

Signature Reports

Freedom in the World

Freedom on the Net

Freedom of the Press

Nations in Transit

Special Reports

Promise and Reversal: The Post-Soviet Landscape Twenty Years On

“Promise and Reversal: The Post-Soviet Landscape Twenty Years On,” marks the 20th anniversary of the failed Soviet coup of August 19, 1991. The retrospective essay examines the changes in the political rights and civil liberties in the former Soviet Union over the last two decades, as well as includes graphs and rankings that illustrate the region's performance in the annual Freedom House publications Freedom in the World and Freedom of the Press. The report  concludes that there is a serious and disturbing failure to embrace democratic institutions in most of the post-Soviet region.

Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia

The Perpetual Battle: Corruption in the Former Soviet Union and the New EU Members

This article provides an overview of a number of key issues related to corruption that confront the countries of the former Soviet Union and the new members of the European Union. Findings from Nations in Transit, Freedom House's annual assessment of democratic development in the region, suggest that despite the passage of two decades since the collapse of the Soviet system, the non-Baltic former Soviet Union remains mired in institutionalized graft. Meanwhile, the new EU member states face their own persistent challenges as they struggle to combat political corruption.

Issues: 
Democratic Governance, Rule of Law
Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia

Muzzling the Media: The Return of Censorship in the Commonwealth of Independent States

Only a decade and a half since the end of the Cold War, freedom of the press for millions of people across the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has come nearly full circle. The media landscape across most of today’s CIS in some aspects differs from that of the Soviet era, but in important ways is imposing a no less repressive news media environment. Gone is all encompassing ideological state media control. Russia – and most of the countries on its periphery – today features modern methods of information control that effectively shuts off the majority of people in these lands from news and information of political consequence.

Issues: 
Freedom of Expression, Internet Freedom
Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia

Programs

Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, we work with prominent human rights organizations and religious communities to advocate against the government’s repeated attempts to institute repressive religious laws.

Issues: 
Religious Freedom

Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan

In Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, Freedom House enhances the capacity of local civil society groups to rapidly respond to human rights violations, to provide advocates with the skills to defend the right to freedom of assembly, and to equip local groups with the tools to combat gender-based violence and bride-kidnapping.

Issues: 
Human Rights Defense
Regions: 
Central and Eastern Europe/Eurasia