[prisoner-rights] Kazakhstan: Prison reform process reportedly stagnating

Vienna 4 May 2006. The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
(IHF) shares the concerns raised by Kazakh and international civil society
organizations that despite penal reforms, which are relatively
progressive, serious problems persist inside prisons in Kazakhstan that
need to be addressed by the authorities.

Several civil society organizations, including the Almaty Helsinki
Committee, Penal Reform International, Committee for Monitoring Penal
Reforms and Human Rights, Charter for Human Rights and Kazakhstan
International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, organized a press
conference in Almaty last week on the developments of the penitentiary
system in Kazakhstan. They expressed concerns about recent mass incidents
of self-mutilation, rising number of prisoners committing suicide,
continued violations of prisoners’ rights and the worsening relationship
between the penitentiary system and civil society organizations.

Although Kazakhstan was the first Central Asian country to initiate penal
reforms, the country has one of the highest per-capita prison population
rates, at 342 of a population of 100,000. To compare, the prison index for
Kyrgyzstan is 247 and for Tajikistan 164.

The IHF is particularly concerned about continuing incidents of
self-mutilation among prisoners in Kazakhstan. The latest incident was
reported on March 31 in a penal colony in Zarechny in the Almaty region.
Nearly 50 inmates maimed themselves by cutting their abdomens to protest a
policy of unwarranted searches, beatings and the confiscation of personal
belongings.

Incidents like the one in Zarechny have become more frequent in
Kazakhstan in recent years:
- In March 1999, 26 inmates of the Atyrau prison stabbed themselves
in the stomach in what was reportedly a mass suicide attempt to
protest conditions in their jail. The inmates were protesting
overcrowding, lack of food and other inhumane conditions that they
claimed exist in their prison. 
- On 13 July 2000, 44 prisoners in Arkarlyk in the northern Kostanai
region reportedly used razors to slash their necks, stomachs and
wrists to protest poor living conditions in the facility.
- On 11 August 2000, some 57 prisoners in an Almaty Juvenile
Detention Center maimed themselves by cutting their wrists and
abdomens.
- On 19 May 2001, inmates at the Semipalatinsk Prison 156/14
committed acts of self-mutilation, slitting their wrists and driving
nails into their chests and backs to protest prison conditions. 
- On 8 April 2002, 28 inmates at a Karaganda pre-trial detention
facility slashed their abdomens to protest their transfer to Dolinka
151/7 maximum-security penitentiary in the region. They reportedly
believed that the facility did not respect the rights of prisoners.
In May, three inmates at Dolinka also slashed their abdomens. 
- On 29 June and on 10 July 2002, several prisoners cut their veins
and slashed their abdomens to protest prison conditions in the
Kustanai region. 
- In August 2002, nearly 70 inmates at Juvenile Penitentiary 163/3 in
Aktobe rioted to protest the failure of the prison administration to
investigate the suicide of an inmate who had repeatedly complained of
beatings by prison officials. 
- On 27 January 2003, 20 prisoners of a Shymkent facility for
prisoners with TBC, inflicted harm on themselves in protest to demand
for better medicines and “normal” food. The protest led to similar
incidents in another facility in Shymkent, where 25 prisoners cut
their wrists and maimed themselves and in Taraz, where on 11 February
2003, one prisoner reportedly died of a self-inflicted wound and 39
other prisoners mutilated themselves during the course of a riot. 
- In September 2003, prisoners held at a maximum-security colony in
Astana began rioting. According to witnesses, scores of police
officers entered the facility to restore order and severely beat
prisoners. Several of the prisoners attempted suicide as a
consequence, deliberately injuring themselves, by slashing their
throats or abdomens. 
- On 24 October 2003, one prisoner died as a result of a
self-inflicted wound and 60 other prisoners mutilated themselves to
protest the severe beatings that they reported receiving for months
at the Arkalyk maximum security prison. 
- In May 2004, nearly 20 prisoners cut themselves to protest harsh
prison conditions and beatings in Zarechny in the Almaty region. 
- On 17 October 2005, around 20 prisoners cut their abdomens in
Dolinka-prison to protest prison conditions.
- On 8 April 2005, 15 prisoners inflicted harm on themselves in a
correction facility in Zhambyl region
- On 12 April 2005, nearly 100 prisoners maimed themselves in
Shymkent. 

The IHF welcomes the fact that the government in Kazakhstan has taken
active steps in recent years to improve prison conditions. For instance,
the government undertook projects to provide medical and human rights
training to prison officials and moved control of the prison system from
the Interior Ministry to the Ministry of Justice. It also established a
system of penitentiary-oversight commissions to review human rights
conditions and a Council for Public Oversight in 2004. However, the
organizers of the press conference noted “a certain stagnation in the
implementation of penal reforms in the past two years”.

Members of the penitentiary-oversight commissions have allegedly been
denied access to certain prisons and proposals made by the commissions
have been partially neglected. Also, the members of the Council for Public
Oversights have reportedly not met since August 2005.

The IHF appeals to the Kazakh government:
- to take effective measures to assure that incidents of
self-mutilations will not continue in the future,
- to step up the pace of reform in order to further improve prison
conditions, reduce the level of prisoner abuse and enhance a greater
understanding of human rights among prison staff,
- to create an efficient mechanism to enable prisoners to make
uncensored complaints about their treatment,
- to give access to the members of the penitentiary-oversight
commissions to review human rights conditions in all pre-trial
detention facilities and in prisons,
- to transform the Council for Public Oversights, which is supposed
to conduct internal investigations on abuse allegations, into a
well-functioning and operating body.

 
For more information:
Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director, +43-1-408 88 22 or +43-676-635 66 12
Henrietta Schroeder, IHF Press Officer, +43-1-408 88 22 41 or
+43-676- 725 48 29