A meeting of the Criminological Forum was held at the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is held annually, the issues of introducing and strengthening human rights standards in the field of criminal prosecution were discussed today.
Representatives of the Presidential Administration, deputies of the Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Council, the academic and lawyers community, international organizations and diplomatic missions took part.
As noted by the meeting participants, the observance of citizens’ rights in the criminal process is one of the main criteria for evaluating the activities of the law enforcement system. Indeed, behind every illegal arrest and detention is the fate of a person and his family.
In recent years, the country has taken effective legislative and practical measures to strengthen the rule of law in this area, and created legal mechanisms to prevent torture.
For example, from the beginning of this year, the institution of detention has undergone positive changes. In order to strengthen the protection of human rights, the period of detention has been reduced from 72 to 48 hours, minors to 24 hours. A 72-hour detention period is reserved only for complex cases. This is the standard in all OECD countries.
These and other measures reduced the number of detained citizens by one third. So, for 8 months of this year 7,237 persons were detained, which is 35.8% less than last year.
During the discussions, topical issues of strengthening human rights standards and the conformity of national legislation with international legal principles were raised.
An exchange of views also took place on the draft amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, aimed at strengthening its human rights potential.
As a result of the discussion, proposals were developed aimed at improving the effectiveness of law enforcement practice, taking into account international experience.
