Access to Information and the Internet in the South Caucasus

Sam Patten, Senior Program Manager for Freedom House's Eurasia programs, gave remarks on access to information in the South Caucasus and the Internet's potential for promoting democratic reform in the region at the OSCE's Seventh South Caucasus Media Conference.  The conference, which was convened by Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Representative of Freedom of the Media, included government officials, media experts, and representatives of civil society.  To read Mr. Patten's speech, please click here. 

 
Patten's Oslo Testimony on Corruption Available on YouTube

Sam Patten, the Senior Program Manager for Eurasia at Freedom House, spoke at the "Costs of Corruption" briefing as part of his recent trip to the 19th Session OSCE Parliamentary Meeting in Oslo, Norway. Describing corruption as a "scourge", Patten called for reform across the OSCE .

Patten's testimony and links to the testimony of the other speakers can be viewed here.

 
Freedom House and Fellow NGOs Host a Successful OSCE Parliamentary Session Side Event in Oslo

Oslo - July 8, 2010 - Together with Global Witness, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Eurasian Democracy Initiative, Freedom House held a side event on the margins of the 19th Session OSCE Parliamentary Meeting in Oslo, Norway today attracting interest from delegates of multiple OSCE member states. Conistent with the assembly's theme of 'Rule of Law: Combatting Transnational Crime and Corruption,' representatives of these four NGOs called on the delegates to take concrete steps to fight rising corruption in the OSCE region precisely because it undermines democratic governance in multiple forms.
 
Freedom House's senior program manager for Eurasia, Sam Patten, pointed to how corruption is not a relative term, not without victims nor without remedies drawing specific examples in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine and Georgia while other NGO representatives also addressed its systemic influence in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and elsewhere.  Citing the 2010 Nations in Transit report, Patten explained how corruption corrodes democratic governance, the free press and independent judiciary processes.
 
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, joined the NGOs at the event and lauded them for raising these issues. Together with Senator Cardin, the NGO representatives responded to questions from delegates and the media about the planned OSCE Summit, freedom of religion in Kazakhstan, and legislation on the floor of the U.S. Senate to require energy companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments. Following the side event, Patten gave interviews to the BBC on the harshening of Azeri journalist Enulla Fatullayev's prison sentence on trumped up charges and likened it to other pushback against indpenednet journalists and human rights defenders, like Kazakhstan's Evgeniy Zhovtis.
 
Patten Testifies before the U.S. Helsinki Commission on Threats to Media Freedom in the OSCE Region

Sam Patten, the Senior Program Manager for Eurasia at Freedom House, testified before the U.S. Helsinki Commisssion on threats to media freedom in the OSCE Region on June 9. Patten sounded a call to action against the growing threats to independent media throughout the 56 member countries of the OSCE. Comparing state censorship to a spreading cancer, Patten decried an erosion of media freedoms in former Soviet and Western European states. In order to roll back the tide of media restrictions, Patten urged the U.S. and the other nations of the OSCE to mobilize in defense of media freedom.

Pattens full testimony can be accessed here.

 
Kazakhstani NGOs Present Reports in Copenhagen

Freedom House sent representatives of the Kazakhstani NGO coalition “OSCE 2010” to the June 10-11 OSCE Copenhagen Conference to mark the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Copenhagen Document, which bound OSCE member states to meeting high standards in the areas of free elections, rule of law, and other fundamental human rights. At the twentieth anniversary conference, representatives of governments and civil society met to discuss how governments have lived up to their pledges. “OSCE 2010” members presented examples of how Kazakhstan, the current OSCE chairman, has failed to meet several of its Copenhagen commitments.

The full text of their report can be accessed in English and in Russian. 
 
A separate report of the state of free elections in Kazakhstan can be accessed in English here.

 

 
Freedom House Press Release: Kazakhstan Fails to Follow Due Process in Case against Human Rights Activist

 

 

 

Washington - April 26, 2010 - Freedom House is dismayed with the Kazakhstani Supreme Court’s decision not to re-consider the case of prominent human rights activist Yevgeniy Zhovtis. 

"Freedom House is deeply troubled by the decision of the court not to review Yevgeniy Zhovtis’s case,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director at Freedom House. “The Kazakh government had the opportunity to demonstrate its respect and commitment to the standards set in the OSCE Copenhagen Declaration and ICCPR by providing due process for Zhovtis. Unfortunately, they failed to do so."

 In July, a car driven by Zhovtis struck and killed Kanat Moldabayev, who was walking down the middle of a dark highway at night. According to the investigation, Zhovtis was neither speeding nor intoxicated. On September 3, 2009, Zhovtis was sentenced to four years in prison.   International observers at the trial noted numerous breaches of legal procedure, including the court’s issuing an 11-page judgment in fifteen minutes.
 
Kazakhstan is currently Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE. Persistent concerns have been raised by Participating States regarding this case at the OSCE Permanent Council.   

"A miscarriage of justice in this case is particularly troubling in view of Kazakhstan’s responsibility to lead by example as the head of the OSCE this year,” said Sam Patten, senior program manager for Eurasia at Freedom House. “This recent court decision suggests that Kazakhstan is not willing to abide by the fundamental values of the organization it chairs.”
 

Kazakhstan is ranked Not Free Freedom in the World 2010, Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free in the Freedom of the Press 2009.

To learn more about Kazakhstan, read:
 
 
Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in Kazakhstan since 1991.
 
OSCE 2010 Monograph

"OSCE 2010," a coalition of leading Kazakhstani NGOs, has published a monograph detailing the commitments Kazakhstan had promised to fulfill during its 2010 OSCE chairmanship and its current status in fulfilling them.  While the monograph itself was written before Kazakhstan assumed its position as chairman, the coalition's recommendations and insights still remain pertinent.  To read the full text of the monograph, please click here.

 
Freedom House at HDIM

In 2009 Freedom House sent a delegation comprised of human rights defenders from former Soviet Union countries and satellite states to the OSCE's annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw, where NGOs and participating states assess how well those states have lived up to their human rights commitments.  Members of Freedom House's delegation participated in a wide array of events and meetings dedicated to the advancement of human rights, and several of their statements have made it to the OSCE's "Daily Highlights" website for HDIM.  To read what Freedom House's delegates have to say and learn more about them, please click on the links below.

Wednesday 7 October: www.osce.org/conferences/hdim_2009.html (Emin Huseynzade, Transitions Online, Azerbaijan)

Tuesday 6 October:   www.osce.org/conferences/hdim_2009.html (Vladimir Shkolnikov, Freedom House Europe)

Wednesday 30 September: www.osce.org/conferences/hdim_2009.html (Vladimir Shkolnikov, Freedom House Europe)

Tuesday 29 September:  www.osce.org/conferences/hdim_2009.html (Yevgeny Zhovtis, Kazakhstan International Human Rights Bureau - statement read at one of Freedom House's events)

Monday 28 September: www.osce.org/conferences/hdim_2009.html (Almaz Esengeldiev, Freedom House Kyrgyzstan/Partners in Human Rights; Vyachelsav Abramov, MediaNet, Kazakhstan)

Also, if you would like to read several of the interventions that Freedom House's delegates made (in both Russian and English), please click here.

 
Yevgeniy Zhovtis Releases Statement from Prison

Yevgeniy Zhovtis, the imprisoned director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, wrote a statement about the future of the OSCE's human dimension basket, which was read aloud at Freedom House's event "Kazakhstan and the OSCE Chairmanship" on 29 September 2009 during the OSCE's Human Dimension Implementation Meeting.  To read an English version of the statement (translated by Jeff Goldstein), please click here.  To read the original Russian, please click here.

 
Kazakhstani Activist Denied Right to Fair Trial

 

 
Washington – September 3, 2009 – Freedom House is disturbed by the investigation and trial of prominent Kazakhstani human rights activist Yevgeniy Zhovtis, who was convicted today of vehicular manslaughter. An appeals court should carefully investigate procedural violations that marred the investigation and tral and ensure that the case is not used to punish Zhovtis for his work.
 
In July, a car driven by Zhovtis struck and killed Kanat Moldabayev, who was walking down the middle of a dark highway at night. According to the investigation, Zhovtis was neither speeding nor intoxicated. However, the court ruled that Zhovtis could have stopped the car in time to avoid hitting the pedestrian, an assertion that witnesses in the car deny. Zhovtis was sentenced to four years in prison.
 
"Freedom House was saddened to hear about this tragic accident, which claimed the life of Mr. Moldabayev," said Jennifer Windsor, Freedom House executive director. "The Kazakhstani government now has a duty to ensure that this tragedy is not compounded by punishing Zhovtis without a fair trial."
 
On Monday, Windsor and the executive directors of Human Rights Watch and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center expressed their concerns about several violations of Zhovtis' rights in a letter to the Kazakhstani ambassador to the United States. The letter was also signed by former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer and W. Cole Durham, Jr., a member of the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief.  
 
The letter cited concerns by Zhovtis's lawyers that the investigator considered their client a suspect, but failed to inform him of this for two weeks. During this time, Zhovtis participated in the investigation with the understanding that he was only a witness and so could not avail himself of the rights accorded to him under Kazakhstani law. During the trial, the judge flatly refused defense requests that he address these violations. He also gave only 40 minutes for the sides to prepare their final arguments, which did not give Zhovtis’ defense team sufficient time to analyze the testimony and prepare an adequate closing statement in defense of their client.
 
The UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms calls on governments to protect activists against “threats, retaliation de facto or dejure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action” for their human rights activities. Zhovtis has won numerous international awards for his work, including the U.S.-EU Democracy-Civil Society Award and the International League for Human Rights Award. 
 
"A miscarriage of justice in this case would be particularly troubling given that next year Kazakhstan will assume the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the continent’s premier regional organization covering human rights," said Jeff Goldstein, Freedom House senior program manager for Central Asia. 
 
Kazakhstan is ranked Not Free in the 2009 edition of Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free in the 2009 version of Freedom of the Press.
To learn more about Kazakhstan, read:
 
 
Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in Kazakhstan since 1991.