Kazakh Citizens Can Legally Complain To UN, With Conditions

ALMATY -- Kazkah citizens became eligible to take complaints to a United Nations committee after Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev signed a law ratifying the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.

The director of the Almaty-based Kazakh Bureau on Human Rights, Yevgeny Zhovtis, told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service that Kazakhs can ask the UN Human Rights Committee to protect their human rights, though he added that the process is difficult and time consuming.

Zhovtis said that before referring a complaint to the committee one should prove that his or her rights were really abused and that all courts in Kazakhstan -- including the Supreme Court -- did not help resolve the situation.