The EU is closely following the human rights situation in Kazakhstan, including by monitoring of legal proceedings against media workers and human rights activists, and of the freedom of the media and freedom of expression situation in the country.
The EU has been at the forefront in calling for an improvement of the situation, and has been raising the need to improve the human rights record with the Kazakh authorities on a regular basis within the framework of the EU-Kazakhstan Human Rights Dialogue, Cooperation Committee and Cooperation Council meetings, and on the occasion of other high level meetings, most recently during the bilateral meeting with Kazakhstan in the margins of the EU-Central Asia High Level Political and Security Dialogue in Brussels on 18 May.
In its statement on Freedom of Assembly in Kazakhstan at the OSCE Permanent Council on 26 May, the EU ‘called on the Kazakh authorities to release without delay all activists arrested in different regions of the country in May'. The EU also expressed its concern about press freedom in Kazakhstan and called on the authorities to stop the practice of detaining members of the media. This includes the case of the journalist Ms Baidalinova.
Freedom of peaceful assembly, of the media and of expression are an inseparable part of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for which is an integral part of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Kazakhstan (Articles 4 and 5 of the Agreement).