Report: Torture in Kazakhstan © mukhtarablyazov.org

Kazakhstan is party to the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Relevant agreements impose on state authorities a series of legislative, administrative, judicial and other obligations aimed at preventing the use of torture in the country. Nevertheless, multiple incidents confirm the following: torture in Kazakhstan remains a widespread phenomenon. Authorities only give the appearance of combating torture, but the real measures undertaken by official Astana do not solve the problem of systematic torture in police stations and prisons.

Torture in Kazakhstan is exerted both on detainees as a form of interrogation with the aim of obtaining confessions, and to prisoners in prisons and penal colonies. At the same time, the problem of torture has reached such proportions that even the authorities of the country can no longer completely turn a blind eye to it. Recently, the Prosecutor’s Office of Kazakhstan reported on criminal cases instituted against workers of law enforcement bodies and prisons. The reason for instituting criminal investigations were incidents of the ill-treatment of detainees, criminal suspects and prisoners.

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