«I support the thesis of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on ensuring law and justice by default», - Elvira Azimova's commentary on the Message of K.K.Tokayev

Today, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan addressed a message to the People of Kazakhstan. Every year, within the framework of such messages, which include key proposals and instructions to the Parliament, the Government, and state bodies, the Head of state identifies key tasks for the near future for the legislative and executive authorities.

Several instructions are aimed at continuing the reforms initiated for the further development of industries, the further development of agriculture and agro-industrial production, a principled position on the land issue, strengthening support for small and medium-sized businesses, and solving problematic economic issues, the urgency and need for immediate solutions to which the quarantine has indicated to us.

As Commissioner for human rights, I was particularly interested in the Message aimed at strengthening the protection of human rights, especially for children, the implementation of constitutional guarantees of the rights to health and related quality medical care, affordable housing, work, and ensuring the rule of law in the activities of law enforcement and other state bodies.

Responsibility to society for decision-making and prompt response to citizens ' requests for justice and equality are important messages for all state bodies, officials of any rank, judges, and employees of state institutions. It is through them that public trust in state power is formed. I believe that the key emphasis of the Message was on ensuring the rule of law and justice by default and responsibility for decision-making. Today, every official must effectively predict all the pros and cons of decision-making.

The Message focuses on the adoption of new measures to protect human rights, in particular in the fight against cyber-bullying, especially among children, human trafficking, torture, and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials and state social institutions, ensuring justice and legality in the activities of courts and law enforcement agencies, and the stability of criminal and criminal procedure legislation.

As a new measure to combat cyberbullying, I believe it is important for the Government to support a civic initiative to teach children the skills and knowledge to protect themselves from online harassment. Violations of human rights on the Internet, making public in social networks information about the private life of citizens, disclosure of legally protected privacy, posting on their pages, and reposting unreliable and false information, unfortunately, is becoming commonplace in our society, especially recently.

Clearly, to work effectively to raise awareness among children about cyberbullying and violence in General, as well as how to protect against it, it is necessary to consider lowering the age for obtaining such legal knowledge. Today, the corresponding discipline ("Man and society") is available to children only after the age of 14. This is very late, given that children of preschool age get access to the Internet, and at the age of 10, the child's opinion is heard by a judge when considering disputes between parents related to children. Today, even adults suffer from Internet harassment, which sometimes leads to tragic cases of suicide. Therefore, it is quite feasible to bring information and knowledge about ways to protect and prevent such cases to people, especially children, within the framework of information security policy. Moreover, developed and recommended training materials are available.

The head of state outlined the current position of zero tolerance to torture and ill-treatment of citizens. Of course, along with the strengthening of control by the Prosecutor's office and the legislative clarification of the definition of "torture", the reforms of the law enforcement and judicial systems outlined by him, including the strengthening of the Ministry of Internal Affairs through the release of non-core functions, the introduction of continuous video surveillance in the premises of the penitentiary system, will significantly advance the policy of countering torture. In connection with the latter, I suggest that we also consider providing such video surveillance in state social institutions, including children's institutions.

Public control, which the Head of state mentioned, currently exists not only about public services, but also operates in the form of a national preventive mechanism and public monitoring commissions since 2014 in a penitentiary and special institutions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Since April last year, state social institutions, including orphanages and centers for children in difficult situations, have been added to their number. The number of such institutions, which are subject to regular visits and monitoring by citizens with the support of the Commissioner for human rights, currently amounts to more than 3,000 objects. Of course, with such a large number of institutions, it is important not to reduce the quality of public control, and, most importantly, to ensure that the Prosecutor's office and other state bodies in charge of the institutions respond promptly to detected violations. It is also important to develop preventive measures to prevent other similar violations. Citizens should see feedback from the state authorities.

The President of the country rightly noted the existing accusatory bias in the work of the law enforcement system and the belated response from the Prosecutor's office. Indeed, to effectively protect human rights and ensure justice and the rule of law, it is very important to provide a three-tier model of "police – Prosecutor-court" in real mode. In connection with the address of the Head of state to law enforcement agencies and the emphasis on conducting a dialogue with people, I suggest that you pay attention to the project "Negotiation police", which was previously implemented by the Kazakh civil sector at the regional level with the support of international organizations. The purpose of this project is to train police officers to communicate correctly with participants of rallies.

The head of state highlighted the importance of ensuring the stability of criminal and criminal procedure legislation. Frequent changes in legislation negatively affect law enforcement and, indeed, do not allow us to develop uniform investigative and judicial practices. As a result, it justifiably leads to discontent and distrust of citizens towards the activities of courts and law enforcement agencies. On the other hand, as shown by the analyses to the Commissioner for human rights, complaints and appeals of citizens, especially recently in connection with the quarantine, the lack of clear procedural issues at a subordinate level and the presence of reference norms or the General wording in the legislation is also the lack of uniform law enforcement practice in the investigation or trial of criminal cases. The source for developing a common practice should be a thorough analysis of citizens ' appeals and complaints, and the effectiveness of their resolution on the ground. That is why I support the instruction of the Head of state to develop a legislative framework for online petitions and strengthening the capacity of civil society through participation in public councils, online broadcasting of meetings of maslikhat, where normative legal acts that are important not only for the development of the region but also for protecting the rights and legitimate interests of citizens at the local level are discussed and adopted. In this regard, the instruction of the Head of state to develop as soon as possible a package of legislative proposals to strengthen local self-government and its financial support is a need of today. It is time for citizens to move to active, legitimate, and high-quality participation in discussion and decision-making.

National human rights center