International experts visited colonies in Karaganda region

UN representatives visited an emergency security facility and a women's colony in the Karaganda region.

The international delegation was represented by the Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Republic of Kazakhstan and a Representative of the UNODC headquarters.

The main purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with the current results of the program's activities in the pilot penitentiary institutions of the DUIS in the Karaganda and Pavlodar regions.

In these areas, a joint EU–UN program and the Committee of the Penitentiary System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan are being implemented to work with those convicted of crimes of extremist and terrorist orientation and to prevent radicalization generating violence in penitentiary institutions. In the Karaganda region, five institutions are participating in this joint program, where more than four thousand convicts are being held, including about 60 people for extremism and terrorism.

The program is implemented by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the UN Counter-Terrorism Center in partnership with the Executive Directorate of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee with financial support from the European Union, the Government of the Netherlands.

“Within the framework of the joint program between the EU – UN and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a joint program has been developed to assess the risks and needs of convicts, thanks to which employees of institutions can develop individual plans for serving sentences. This contributes to the timely prevention of the spread of extremist ideology in penitentiary institutions,” said Madina Sarieva, Acting Head of the UNODC program office in Kazakhstan.

The experts paid their attention to the issues of training and employment of convicts.