Anara Ibrayeva

Kazakhstan, CAHR, Autumn 2018

I am Anara and I live in Astana, Kazakhstan. My specializations are: freedom from torture, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom of expression, migrants and refugees' rights, etc.

When I went to work in the first NGO (Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law), the director asked me which right or freedom I wanted to protect? I chose the freedom from torture. From that time on and for 10 years I was head of the Public Observation Commission in Astana (monitoring the conditions and rule of law in prisons and trying to help the protection of human rights there). I got a PhD in criminal law on the prevention of torture. I prepared and presented Mr. Suleymenov, Tyan, Yevloyev and Rakishevs before the UN Human Rights Committee and Committee Against Torture. In 2014 I was head of the group of the National Preventive Mechanism under Ombudsman in Astana and to this moment I am a member of the Coordination Council of National Preventive Mechanism on Prevention of Torture.

In my country there are no protection mechanisms for human rights defenders.

I participated in the Dublin Platform in 2010, which was organized by Front Line Defenders and after that I tried to share this new experience in my country because I was experiencing threats along with many other defenders. Every year since 2012 the NGO - Public Association "Dignity" (founded on 01 September, 2010), where I work, provides the Platform for Human Rights Defenders on security and protection, trying to improve the level of HRDs' protection in Kazakhstan.

In my country, there are no procedures and legislation for the implementation of UN Committee decisions. The government fears any type of activism and different colour revolutions and "springs". There are no protection mechanisms for human rights defenders. Our monitoring of the situation of defenders' security demonstrates that more than 80 kinds of threats have been recorded since 2011, and during the last 7 years we have observed 70 cases of attacks on HRDs and civil society activists in the mass media.

My future plans are to work on the presumption of innocence because this is not automatic in Kazakhstan in either criminal or administrative cases. This is a violation of basic human rights. I also plan to create a national protection mechanism for HRDs in Kazakhstan.