Kazakhstan - annual report 2017

Details: Published: June 1, 2018

Working visit by a delegation of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the topic of “Regional constitutional court jurisdiction in Germany” at the Constitutional Court of Rhineland-Palatinate: President of the Constitutional Court of Rhineland-Palatinate, Dr. Lars Brocker, (3 rd from left)

Legal Policy Situation

As early as 2015, the EU and Kazakhstan negotiated an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was ratified in Kazakhstan on 25 March 2016. The main contents of the cooperation agreed therein relate to foreign and security policy, sustainable economic development, legislation and the rule of law, finance, science and technology.

The cooperation in this Partnership and Cooperation Agreement in turn hails from the EU’s Central Asia Strategy, which was adopted already in 2007. It is against this background that the 13th EU-Central Asia Ministerial Meeting was held in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) on 10 November 2017, at which the strategy was reviewed and questions of its continuation and future shape were discussed.

As a result, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Central Asia Strategy, the will was underscored to continue cooperation between the Central Asian states and the EU. Furthermore, priorities for cooperation were also discussed already, which will be incorporated into the future EU-Central Asia strategy to be adopted by 2019.

On 10 March 2017, a constitutional reform was passed in Kazakhstan, which led to a transfer of powers from the president to parliament and government. The aim of this reform is to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. Even after the reform, however, the President remains vested with far-reaching powers: for example, he is not accountable politically to Parliament and, even after the end of his term of office, he retains a constitutionally guaranteed extensive immunity.

Overall Concept

Since the end of 2009, the IRZ has been supporting the Republic of Kazakhstan in comprehensive judicial reforms. Particularly noteworthy is the reform of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, both of which are based recognisably on German standards. Intensive consultations on individual topics in criminal and criminal procedure law were expressly requested by the Kazakh partners. In addition, the focus in the year under review was on constitutional law, civil procedural law, patent and trademark law, legislative proceedings as well as basic and further training.

In the course of the constitutional reform the IRZ also supported an international conference on the “Constitution and modernisation of society and the state” with the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Astana.

The IRZ has continued to cooperate intensively with the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Council. The focus of the cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office was the deliberations on the Code of Criminal Procedure and the new draft law on the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kazakhstan. The main focus of the joint events with the Supreme Court was on the principles of criminal justice.

The IRZ continued its successful cooperation with the Constitutional Council in the area of constitutional law and criminal and civil law with regard to the protection of human rights. From 8 to 10 November 2017, for example, a high-ranking delegation of the Constitutional Council paid a working visit to Koblenz on the subject of “Regional constitutional Court jurisdiction in Germany”, during which members of the delegation and staff of the Constitutional Court of Rhineland-Palatinate were able to exchange views on various issues of constitutional jurisdiction at federal and state level in Germany.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the IRZ organised a working stay in Berlin in November 2017 for a delegation from the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the subject of regulatory offences.

Foci of Activity 2017

Constitutional Law/Human Rights and their Enforceability

International Conference on the “Constitution and modernisation of society and the state” in Astana
Working visit to Koblenz on the topic „Regional constitutional Court jurisdiction in Germany“.
Translation of the German Court Constitution Act into Russian

Civil and Commercial Law

Study trip for four representatives of the Patent Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the German Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office in Munich

Criminal Law and Penitentiary Law

Study trip to Frankfurt and Braunschweig on the topic of “Law and security at the airport”
International conference on “Efficient criminal law policy and optimal judicial criminal procedure model as a priority development of a modern legal protection system” in Ak-Bulak
International Conference on the subject of “Criminal proceedings concerning fraud” in Astana
Working visit on “Criminal investigation” in Frankfurt/Main
International round table on the reform of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty
Seminar on the topic of “Execution of sentence” in Astana
Study trip to Kempten on the subject of “Criminal offences against the judiciary and the penitentiary system”
Round table “Development prospects of criminal proceedings in the context of the modernisation of criminal proceedings legislation” in Astana
Round table on the subject of “Cybercrime and data protection” in Astana
Working visit of four representatives of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Berlin on “Challenges in the prosecution of criminal offences and regulatory offences”

Basic and Further Training

Participation of the President of the Association of Judges of the Republic of Kazakhstan and his advisor in the event of the memorandum group of Judges’ Associations in Tbilisi
Participation of an administrative and criminal judge from Almaty as well as a civilian judge from the district of Naurzum Kostanaj in the multilateral programme for German-speaking judges and prosecutors

Outlook

Cooperation with Kazakhstan’s partner institutions for the year 2018 will be based on the forthcoming legislative reforms in Kazakhstan. Accordingly, criminal and procedural law as well as civil law in particular will play an important role with regard to the activities of the IRZ. Furthermore, cooperation with the Constitutional Council and the Academy for law enforcement agencies under the Prosecutor General’s Office will be continued. Moreover, it is planned to further deepen the cooperation on intellectual property established in recent years with the Kazakh Ministry of Justice and to extend it to other specialist areas. In addition to the continuation of cooperation with the Supreme Court, the partnership with Kazakh lawyers and notaries is to be further expanded. Basic and Further Training