OSCE Centre supports criminal justice reform in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 7 June 2011 – Reform efforts in the field of criminal justice are the focus of an OSCE-supported two-day round-table meeting that began in Almaty today.

Some 60 participants representing the Parliament, the Constitutional Council, the Presidential Administration, the Supreme Court, the General Prosecutor’s Office, and law enforcement agencies, as well as civil society and academia met to review a concept paper for the new criminal code updated as a result of the previous such meeting held in December 2011, and to share international experience and good practices in the field of criminal legislation reform.

"The Centre supports such meetings on legal reforms which help promote the modernization of the criminal justice system, as it is an important part of OSCE’s work in the human dimension," said Ambassador Natalia Zarudna, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana.

"Today’s roundtable discussion will allow different stakeholders to voice their positions,” Zarudna said, adding that it would help elaborate a consolidated position on key issues in the national penal law, which is important for a concerted criminal justice reform effort.

“A part of criminal justice reform efforts, the draft of the new criminal code includes numerous progressive elements. However several questions remain which beg for additional research. At today's meeting international experts were invited to assist us with studying those issues from the point of view of international experience,” said Igor Rogov, Chairman of Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Council.

The event was jointly organized by the OSCE Center in Astana, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Dutch Embassy in Astana, the German Foundation for International Legal cooperation, the European Union’s project “Support to Judicial and Legal Reform in the Republic of Kazakhstan”, and the non-governmental organization “Charter for Human rights”.