Newsroom
Azerbaijan - Head of OSCE PA Observation Mission to Monitor Parliamentary Elections in Azerbaijan appointed
OSCE Foreign Ministers agreed to hold OSCE Summit in Astana by yearend - Saudabayev
OSCE Informal Ministerial Meeting in Almaty focuses on Corfu Process progress, Kyrgyzstan, an OSCE summit
OSCE Chairperson welcomes successful conduct of referendum, calls for large-scale assistance to Kyrgyzstan
Special IssueNo 31, July 7, 2010
OSCE High-level Conference on Tolerance and Non-Discriminationheld in Kazakhstan
On June 29-30, 2010 the High-Level Conference on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination was hosted by Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship in the Palace of Peace and Accord in Astana in accordance with the Ministerial Council Decision 10/09 of December 2, 2009 as a follow-up to previous OSCE conferences related to Tolerance and Non-Discrimination.
OSCE Chairperson welcomes Turkmenistan's role in promoting stability in Central Asia
OSCE Centre helps promote international anti-corruption standards in Kazakhstan
Preventing escalation of violence and helping people on the ground key to international actors' efforts in Kyrgyzstan, says OSCE Special Envoy
20TH ANNIVERSARY OF OSCE COPENHAGEN DOCUMENT
Back in 1990, after four weeks of intense negotiations in Denmark, the OSCE member-states agreed on a historic arrangement known as the Copenhagen Document. The Copenhagen Document was a milestone in putting an end to the Cold War. It is one of the most far-reaching international human rights agreements ever adopted setting new standards in key areas such as democratic elections, minority rights protection and the rule of law. In the years following the fall of the Berlin wall, the document came to represent wide-ranging commitments with respect to democracy and human rights. Much has been accomplished since then.
CICA’s Istanbul Summit Marks New Age in Asian Security Dialogue and New Level of Cooperation between the CICA and the OSCE
The 3rd Summit of the Conference for Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was held in Istanbul on June 8, 2010 – first time the Summit took place outside Kazakhstan. Turkey has taken over the CICA presidency from Kazakhstan and will hold it for 2 years. “I would like to emphasize that Turkey possesses unique historic, political and cultural experience to advance this extremely complex process of building confidence and promoting the Asian cooperation. I am sure that the Republic of Turkey will add great momentum to the strengthening and further development of our Conference,” President Nazarbayev said.
Kazakhstan and so-called “Madrid Commitments”
On November 29, 2007 Kazakhstan’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs Marat Tazhin in his speech at the OSCE Ministerial Meeting in Madrid laid out plans for Kazakhstan’s further democratic progress. He indentified perfection of the election legislation, genuine support for political parties’ growth, meaningful improvements in the media sector and local governance as Kazakhstan’s comprehensive vision for continued reform. He also promised that Kazakhstan’s chairmanship would preserve the ODIHR, its existing mandate and refrain from supporting any future efforts to weaken this institution. Later, these plans of Kazakhstan for its own political development and strengthening one of the core OSCE institutions were interpreted as Kazakhstan’s “Madrid Commitments”.
In 2008, Kazakhstan started integrating numerous public platforms for cooperation between Government and civil society into a single ad-hoc mechanism involving various national and international NGOs, human rights activists and political parties that helped Kazakhstan introduce important amendments to the legislation on elections, political parties, media and local governance. Kazakhstan also established a “follow-up mechanism” with the ODIHR to set up a timetable for cooperation on improving the national election legislation. On November 11, 2008 the package of amendments was finalized and, in early 2009, signed by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Recently, we came across an article by Mr. Sam Patten of Freedom House which is an exemplary set of stereotypes and distortions that some organizations, unfortunately, produce in abundant variety.
Kazakhstan remains optimistic and prefers to regard such writings as badly informed rather than ill-intended. We hope, however, that our “critics” would bother to investigate at least some facts before producing their materials.
Instead of providing our own reply to the article, we present to our readers a comment on it posted by Mr. Ardaq Adlet, who, judging by his reply, is a native Kazakh. We have also added below the original article to facilitate comparison and analysis.
NAZARBAYEV: SUMMIT NEEDED FOR STAGNANT OSCE
Washington Times, Jan 14, 2010
