Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused authorities in Kazakhstan of violating international human rights law by "misusing" extremism and terrorism legislation to target peaceful government critics and others.
The rights group said in a 29-page report issued on August 27 that that those placed on Kazakhstan’s Financing Terrorism List face financial restrictions that cause them "significant hardship" and lead to "violations" of their guaranteed rights.
The situation "is particularly egregious when the prosecutions are for alleged nonviolent “extremist” or “terrorist” crimes, that should not be considered crimes in the first place," it added.
"If you participate in peaceful antigovernment protests in Kazakhstan, not only can the government prosecute you as an ‘extremist,’ but it can cut you off financially," HRW's senior Central Asia researcher Mihra Rittman said in the report.
"Kazakhstan should immediately end its pernicious use of extremism and terrorism laws against peaceful critics and others and remove anyone currently on the Financing Terrorism List who has been convicted of nonviolent crimes.”
According to HRW, the tightly controlled former Soviet republic's laws do not distinguish between violent and nonviolent extremism and multiple articles in the Criminal Code relating to extremism and terrorism are vaguely worded and overly broad.
The Central Asian nation's authorities automatically place on the list of groups or individuals financing terrorism or extremism any person convicted on charges that they deem to be "extremist" or "terrorist" regardless of whether the person instigated, took part in, or financially supported violence.
"Kazakhstan authorities should revise the criminal code’s provisions on extremism and terrorism so that they have sufficient precision to guarantee legal certainty. Kazakhstan also should not criminalize legitimate exercise of freedoms of speech, expression, and association, or violate other rights protected by international law, HRW's statement said.