JUNE 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – MPs in Kyrgyzstan voted overwhelmingly to pass the second reading of a controversial law that will ban so-called gay propaganda. To become law, the bill needs to pass a third reading and then be signed by President Almazbek Atambayev. Russia passed a similar law in 2013.
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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)
MAY 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court blocked a bill that would have banned so-called gay propaganda, only a few days after Olympic athletes said it contradicted the spirit of the Olympic Games.
In their letter to the International Olympic Committee, the athletes criticised he law, similar to one brought in by Russia in 2013, and asked the Games’ governing body to pressure Kazakhstan into reconsidering the law.
The strategy now appears to have worked.
As ever, timing is everything. Kazakhstan is competing with Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. A decision is due in July and Kazakhstan would have been very keen to avoid any negative publicity surrounding its bid in the run-up to that announcement.
According to media reports, the Constitutional Council rejected the bill because if considered it vague and legally incorrect.
That, though, may not be the end of it. The promoter of the bill, MP Aldan Smayyl, said amendments to the current draft will be made and the bill will be submitted to the Parliament again soon.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
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.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
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.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 140 people working for the oil services company KazStroyService have gone on strike in west Kazakhstan demanding an increase in wages, media reported. Kazakhstan is sensitive to strikes. In 2011, 16 people died during fighting between protesters and police at a strike in west Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
MARCH 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) challenged European leaders to use a trip to Europe by Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atamabayev to call for improved human rights in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, HRW said European leaders should protest against a bill passing through the Kyrgyz parliament that would limit gay rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Cotton Campaign, a lobby group set up to stop Uzbekistan using child labour to pick its cotton, said the Uzbek authorities had detained and arrested one of its in-country reporters. Uzbekistan has not commented.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The government of the Karaganda region has said that ArcelorMittal’s temporary move to knock 25% off its workers’ wages at its steel plant in Temirtau last month was illegal, the Tengrinews website reported. It has filed a lawsuit against ArcelorMittal, one of Kazakhstan’s biggest foreign investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)
FEB. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz lawmakers are likely to vote on a bill that will criminalise promoting gay relationships in the next few weeks, the AFP news agency reported. The law is similar to Russian legislation that has attracted worldwide condemnation and, if passed, would possibly isolate Kyrgyzstan further from the West.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)
EDINBURGH/NEW YORK, FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Civil freedoms in Central Asia and the South Caucasus took a turn for the worse in 2014 as governments moved closer to Russia and worried that street demonstrations in Ukraine may spread, Freedom House said in an interview.
The sharpest deterioration in civil rights in 2014, according to the US-based lobby group, came in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.
“Governments restricted freedom of assembly and speech to prevent ‘maidans’ and Russian encouragement of separatism,” Nate Schenkkan, a Eurasia Programme Officer at Freedom House, said in an interview with The Bulletin. Schenkkan’s reference to so-called maidans was to Ukrainian street demonstrations which morphed into a full scale revolution.
The interview was conducted over twitter with questions also taken from viewers.
At the end of last year Azerbaijani police raided the office of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In the interview with The Bulletin, Schenkkan said the police raid was the culmination of a tough year for media and government critics in Azerbaijan.
“There was a full-scale crackdown. Now (there are) 90 plus political prisoners, all independent media shuttered in Azerbaijan,” he said. “Sanctions for Azerbaijani officials should be on the table and EU leaders should skip the European Games.” Azerbaijan is hosting the inaugural European Games later this year.
As for Kyrgyzstan, Schenkkan said new legislation had dented Kyrgyzstan’s image.
“Kyrgyzstan is the most disappointing because it is a reversal after relative gains recently,” he said. “Copycat attempts at Russian legislation against LGBTI and NGOs nearly passed.”
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)