Astana. 18th of Febuary. KazTAG - Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) After the persecution by state bodies, they appealed to the President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev, the agency correspondent reports.
"Over the past months, a number of Kazakhstani human rights organizations have undergone massive press on the part of the fiscal bodies. Several NGOs received unreasonably large penalties, the activities of others were suspended for three months. The accusations were associated with alleged violations of tax legislation in terms of late or inaccurate notifications of reporting on foreign funding, "referred to in circulation, the international center of MediaNet journalism.
As noted, "the so-called" violations "did not affect any unossimile budget and did not cause any damage to anyone," and even more - "this is a duplication of reporting, in which NGOs are obliged to disclose the state authorities information about any funds received, including funds from foreign Sources. "
"After the situation has received a wide resonance in society and the media, Kazakhstani and international organizations and diplomatic missions acted in support of the NGOs mentioned. They condemned repression against civil society representatives, called upon to cancel the sanctions and lead legislation in line with international standards. Despite the fact that in the future the sanctions against NGOs were canceled, we express concern about the current legislation. We are confident that the persecution was associated with political motifs, the active civil position of the aforementioned NGOs, the pre-election period. The reason for such conclusions was numerous procedural violations and explicit bias from the inspection bodies, "the appeal said.
According to the authors of the document, "the current situation gave clearly to understand how vulnerable the activities of the civilian sector in Kazakhstan are vulnerable."
"The existing legislation allows paralyzing the work of NGOs due to imaginary violations that do not pose any threat to the state and society. In 2019, in his message, the people of civil society were voiced by the people of Kazakhstan, as one of the priorities of the country's development. In this regard, the Concept of Development of Civil Society was developed until 2025, which is implemented by the Ministry of Information and Public Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, where one of the directions should be the formation of a favorable and stimulating legislation against NGOs and other civil society institutions, "public workers were reminded.
It is also noted that strong civil society is an integral agreement for the development of progressive, transparent, democratic, free from state corruption.
"Unreasonable pressure on NGOs causes irreparable damage to the reputation of Kazakhstan, contradicts the country's international obligations, impedes the accession of Kazakhstan to important international initiatives (for example, Open Government Partnership). Moreover, the existing legislation negatively affects the authority of the state, which declares the need for civil society development, and in practice it demonstrates the opposite, "is indicated in the document.
The civilian sector organizations believe that the current legislation must be revised and changed, since the norms governing the activities of the NGOs are unnecessary, contain objectively disproportionate penalties.
"We fear that in the future they can be re-used selectively for attempts to punish certain NGOs that receive foreign funding. We urge you to radically revise the norms related to foreign financing (COAP and Tax Code), and exclude them from the current legislation. And also we insist that such and other laws are not used to be used in the future as a means of political pressure on civil society, "the social activists turned to Tokayev.
Recall, on November 30, 2020, human rights activists and NGOs of Kazakhstan announced a one-time "attack" by government agencies, in particular, on the part of tax services. The authors of the statement tied the "attack" with political events, in particular, with those who were then prepared for the elections in Majilis. The United States expressed concern about the actions of the authorities, and the leading human rights organization of the world Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch and International Partnership for Human Rights stated that Kazakhstan's government agencies should stop pressure on NGOs and human rights defenders. Attention with the persecution of NGOs, attention is drawn in the last resolution of the European Parliament with criticism to the authorities of Kazakhstan and the appeal to introduce sanctions.