Tag Archives: law

EU criticises Kyrgyzstan on gay rights

MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in Brussels focused on human rights, the EU criticised new legislation passing through Kyrgyzstan’s parliament that outlaws promoting gay relationships.

The legislation is similar to laws brought in by Russia two years ago. Analysts have said Bishkek may have been motivated to introduce the rules by a desire to cosy up to the Kremlin.

The criticism of gay rights in Kyrgyzstan came the day after anti-gay rights protesters in Bishkek attacked a pro-gay rights meeting being held in the garden of an upmarket Bishkek hotel.

Over the past few years, the West has watched as Kyrgyzstan, once its poster-boy in Central Asia, has moved increasingly towards Russia. This month it also joined the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.

As well as criticising Kyrgyzstan over its gay rights record, EU officials also praised the country for trying to clamp down on torture in prison and improving women’s rights.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Athletes challenge Kazakh gay laws

MAY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a potentially damaging hit to Kazakhstan’s hopes of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, 27 current or former Olympic athletes wrote to the International Olympic Committee to ask it to pressure the Kazakh government into ditching a new law that bans so-called gay propaganda.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Azeri court rejects journalist appeal

MAY 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku rejected an appeal by journalist Khadija Ismayilova against a conviction for libel in February. Ms Ismayilova is in prison waiting for her trial to begin for coaxing another journalist into a suicide attempt. Her supporters have said that the charges are fabricated.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Georgia allows voting on a prosecutor

MAY 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia will allow parliament to vote on the appointment of the prosecutor-general, media reported, a move designed to bolster democracy. Under the current system the PM appoints the country’s top prosecutor. New laws will introduce a special council to advise on an appointment which will then need to be approved by government and parliament.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Georgian Parliament to introduce new, easier, visa regulations

MAY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia is on the cusp of easing visa regulations which were tightened eight months ago on the premise of being in line with EU regulations.

Parliament has passed two readings of the visa bill and the final vote is scheduled for later this month.

Georgia’s economy is reliant on foreign investment and Eric Livny, director of International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University, said any relaxation of migration rules would be positive.

“Georgia should use the current opportunity to liberalise its visa regime with Europe while staying as open as possible to the outside world,” he said.

The bill reinstates the 360-day visa-free stay for citizens and permanent residents of countries listed by the government. Most likely, this will include EU members and the US. The changes also include simpler procedures and lower fees for obtaining Georgian visa and residence permit.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Tajikistan jails Islamic extremists

MAY 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in south Tajikistan sentenced 10 men to 8-1/2 years in prison each for being members of the banned Islamic extremist group Jamaat Ansarullah. Jamaat Ansarullah is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, blamed for a series of attacks over the past couple of decades in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Azerbaijan restricts people’s right to travel

APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Milli Majlis, the Azerbaijani Parliament approved an amendment to the Criminal Code which will punish citizens for not notifying the government within a month when they receive citizenship for another country.

Opposition members criticised the new law for imposing repressive legislation designed to increase the government’s control of its people.

Under the new law, citizens will be fined between 3,000 and 5,000 manat ($2,800-$4,750) or receive 360 to 480 hours of public service for not notifying the Azerbaijani authorities that they have taken a second nationality.

Azerbaijan already outlaws dual nationality but the existing laws did not contain a penalty.

Lawyer Muzaffar Baxishov of the Legal State Research Foundation, an Azerbaijani NGO told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the government wants to create obstacles for its critics.

“People will have to inform the government about new citizenship, otherwise they will be involved in a criminal case,” he said.

The US and the EU have both heavily criticised Azerbaijan for crushing dissent over the past few years. Many of Azerbaijan’s opposition groups gather emotional and financial support from outside the country. The government has already moved to restrict its citizens’ travel.

Under regulation introduced in January, Azerbaijanis now have to inform their embassies that they are residing in a country, even if temporarily. Previously, Azerbaijani citizens only had to tell embassies if they intended to stay in a country permanently.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Armenia remembers 1915

APRIL 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia officially marked the 100th anniversary of the killing of thousands of its countrymen by Ottoman Turks, an event it wants recognised as a genocide.

On the eve of the ceremony in Yerevan, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, joined a growing list of countries calling the death of up to 1.5m Armenians a genocide.

“What happened in the middle of the First World War in the Ottoman Empire under the eyes of the world was a genocide,” media quoted Bundestag Presi- dent Norbert Lammert as saying at the debate on the issue.

The issue is sensitive in Germany as historians have said Nazi leader Adolf Hitler used the killings of the Armenians in the east of modern-day Turkey as evidence the world would turn a blind eye to his plans to kill Jews in Europe.

Presiding over the sombre ceremony in Yerevan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said: “Recognition of the genocide is a triumph of human conscience and justice over intolerance and hatred.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande were among the foreign dignitaries to attend the service.

The US sent a delegation but President Barack Obama has pointedly steered away from describing the deaths as a genocide.

Turkey has denied the genocide. It says Armenians died in the chaos around the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said that he feels Armenia’s pain over the killings but he is quick to criticise descriptions of the deaths as a genocide.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Kazakhstan jails Ukraine fighter

APRIL 27 2015(The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Atyrau in western Kazakhstan sentenced an unnamed 27-year-old man to jail for three years for fighting with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, media reported. Radio Free Europe said this was the second case this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Greece refuse Georgia’s extradition request

APRIL 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Greece rejected an extradition request from Georgia for its ex-domestic intelligence chief, Data Akhalaia. Reports did not specify just why Greece’s Supreme Court had turned down Georgia’s request but Europe and the US have accused Georgia of using the law to settle vendettas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)