Speech by Barlyk Mendygaziev, Chairman of the Freedom Kazakhstan Human Rights Foundation, at the OSCE Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw on October 6, 2023.

1. Issue of violation of the rights to peaceful assembly and association:
   • The authorities of Kazakhstan remain unpunished for the murders, torture and political persecution of activists of the opposition movements “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan”, “Koshe Partiyasy” and “Alga Kazakhstan”.
   • The impunity of the authorities for executions and repressions in 2011 in Zhanaozen led to the mass execution of peaceful protesters in different cities of Kazakhstan in 2022 with the participation of Russian troops from the CSTO.
   • The authorities refused the international investigation.
   • The authorities are persecuting civilians and critics, accusing them of “extremism”, “terrorism” and allegedly “money laundering”.
   • In May 2023, the leader of the unregistered opposition party "Alga Kazakhstan" and independent ex-candidate Marat Zhylanbaev was arrested and is in prison, whom the authorities did not allow to participate in the elections for far-fetched reasons.
   • The authorities unreasonably refused to register Alga Kazakhstan 19 times, although they complied with all the requirements of the law.
   • Dozens of opposition activists, like Kairat Klyshev, are in prison. ⠀

1. Barlyk Mendygaziev also raised the issue of political persecution of human rights defenders, telling the story of political persecution of his family and colleagues for providing assistance to the families of politically repressed people. ⠀ The authorities took hostage and imprisoned his brother, Bekizhan Mendygaziev, colleagues Baurzhan Dzhusupov, Natalya Dauletyarova and Rinat Batkaev. Barlyk Mendygaziev spoke at the OSCE in 2022, and at that time he had 5 brothers, but now there are 4 left. As a result of political criminal prosecution, his brother Kalyk was killed (he had a group 1 disability). ⠀
2. Barlyk Mendygaziev appealed to the EU and the United States not to believe the empty promises of the Kazakh authorities about “reforms” and to impose personal sanctions on President Tokayev for the order to “shoot to kill without warning” and the mass imprisonment of people for dissent.