Kazakhstan, a state that last year extradited 29 Uzbek refugees to the country of torture, entered the United Nations Human Rights Council.

On November 12, 2012, New York hosted a 67th session of UN General Assembly, which included elections to the UN Human Rights Council for the period of 2013-2015.

For the first time Kazakhstan was elected as a member of this prestigious organization, receiving 183 votes of 193 UN member states. Now this state, together with other 47 member states of the Council, is to decide on matters related to human rights.

However, this news caused wide criticism in the online forums of Kazakhstan.

“This news has killed me the remnants of faith in the United Nations,” writes the user one of Kazakhstan’s websites.

Nonetheless, the Kazakh authorities and official media is considering this as yet another achievement of the country in the international community.

Altai Abibullayev, official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, said that it was recognition of Kazakhstan’s strong commitment to protection human rights.

“The election of our country to the biggest human rights institution of UN is recognition of progress made by Kazakhstan in progressive strengthening, protection of universal human rights and freedoms. It is also a clear evidence of a strong commitment to active international cooperation in this area,” said Abibullayev.

However, Yevgeniy Zhovtis, chairman of the Kazakhstan Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, in the interview to newspaper Respublika.kz told that the election of Kazakhstan to the UN Human Rights Council does not represent acknowledgement of country’s work in human rights field.

“The Council is formed on a regional basis, that is, a number of states are elected from each region. Kazakhstan, like Kyrgyzstan, is elected from Asia.

First, many states in US have been in the Council, and so they have chosen Kazakhstan. Second, prior to us there were (and their term expired in 2012) three states – Saudi Arabia, China and Cuba. I think you know human rights conditions in these countries. And Libya was elected to the Council under Gaddafi regime, and still is a member.

So the election to the UN Human Rights Council is not an acknowledgement. This is the usual rotation principle. Just the time has come, as other 26 Asian countries have already been in the Council. And the General Assembly was to elect new members from Asian states, which usually have bad human rights records with just few exceptions. So the choice was not big,” – says Yevgeniy Zhovtis.

In 2011, the Kazakh authorities extradited twenty nine Uzbek refugees back to Uzbekistan, a country that widely practices torture. Then, the international human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club” together with the human rights organization ACAT-France (Association of Christians Against the Death Penalty and Torture) had filed a complaint to the UN Committee against Torture on behalf of twenty nine Uzbek refugees.

In its turn, the UN Committee against Torture ruled that Kazakhstan has violated articles 3 and 22 of the international “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” by extraditing refugees to neighboring Uzbekistan.

The UN Committee against Torture has also demanded that the Kazakh authorities provide appropriate protective means, including their return to Kazakhstan, to twenty-nine extradited Uzbek refugees, and pay compensation to them. But until now, the Kazakh authorities have not reacted to the decision of the Committee.

All extradited refugees were sentenced to long years in prison after their return to Uzbekistan. Their fate is still unknown.

In addition, at present two more Uzbek refuges are kept in detention centers in Kazakhstan – Khairullo Tursunov and Maksad Zhabbarbergenovm, who also face serious threat of being extradited to Uzbekistan.