EU Reporter
(pictured) has spared convicts sentenced to death in the authoritarian central Asian nation. The former Soviet state has ratified a UN treaty against capital punishment.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed a decree abolishing the death penalty in Kazakhstan, according to a statement released by his office on Saturday.
The new law makes permanent the existing moratorium on state executions in place since 2003, introduced
In September 2020, Tokayev spoke before the UN General Assembly saying that the decision was driven to fulfill a fundamental right to life and human dignity. Last year, the oil-rich country joined the UN s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a multilateral treaty included in the International Bill of Human Rights.
Kazakh Elections Under New President Looking A Lot Like Previous Votes Under Nazarbaev
January 06, 2021 20:10 GMT
Share
share
Print
Kazakhstan will hold its first parliamentary elections on January 10 without longtime authoritarian Nursultan Nazarbaev as the president.
Nazarbaev finally stepped down in 2019 from the office he held since Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991 ushering in his successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
But despite a change of president, many feel Nazarbaev still rules the country.
One sign he s the country s gray eminence is the manner in which these elections to the Mazhilis, the lower house, are being conducted.
Though some hoped Toqaev would open up society and allow some freedoms absent under Nazarbaev, the upcoming vote appears to be no different than earlier ones for parliament none of which were deemed free or fair by Western election monitors.