Kazakhstan

International seminar on issues around international child abduction

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Published: February 27, 2023
Gutzeit, Peixoto, Wollenschläger
Gutzeit, Peixoto, Wollenschläger
Republic of Kazakhstan

The IRZ has been organising seminars on the “Application of the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Law Aspects of International Child Abduction (HKÜ)” in cooperation with the Hague Conference on International Private Law (HCCH), the Federal Office of Justice and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK) since 2020. A follow-up seminar was held in Almaty on 20-21 October 2022.

Two German experts participated along with Raquel Salinas Peixoto, legal officer at the Hague Conference on International Private Law: Désirée Wollenschläger, officer at the Federal Office of Justice and judge at the District Court and Dr Joanna Guttzeit, liaison judge at the International Hague Liaison Judges Network and liaison judge at the European Judicial Network.

The Chair of the Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights at the Ministry of Education of the RK, Nasymzhan Ospanova, opened the event and moderated the program.

The IRZ experts discussed the following topics:

  • Details of the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction
  • Federal Office of Justice as the central authority in Germany for international conflicts regarding custody
  • Differences in court negotiations for custody and visitation rights and child abduction
  • Use of mediation in court
  • Court practice regarding the application of the HKÜ
  • Hearing of the child
  • Cooperation of central authorities in the application of the HKÜ
  • Liaison judges at the Hague International Judges Network

The following speakers attended for Kazakhstan: Tokzhan Dyusembekova, Chair of the Almaty District Juvenile Court; Talgat Taskuzhin, Deputy Head of the Department of International Relations, the Department for Safeguarding the Functioning of Courts at the Supreme Court and Timur Yerdzhanov, International Law Attorney. They addressed problems in the application of the HKÜ in Kazakhstan and described their practical experiences.

The participants (80 attendees) consisted of representatives from the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, the regional guardianship authorities and the juvenile departments in the police.

The face-to-face format enabled direct dialogue and exchanges with the attendees, who took an active part in the discussions.

The IRZ is planning an event next year with the relevant judges in Kazakhstan on issues around HKÜ.

Online seminar “Policy to prevent corruption in the court system”

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Published: June 11, 2022
Republic of Kazakhstan

The Republic of Kazakhstan adopted the policy to combat corruption for the period 2022-2026. A series of events have been planned on the theme of preventing corruption in the court system. IRZ organised an online seminar on the topic on 7 April 2022.

On 22 February 2022, the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted the policy to combat corruption for the period 2022 to 2026 by Presidential Decree.

As part of the implementation and using international expertise, seminars, lectures and training sessions on anti-corruption in the court system are regularly held at the Academy of Justice at the Supreme Court (SCJ) of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Academy is also continuing to address new developments in the policy to combat corruption in the judicial system and is working to develop a corresponding action plan.

On this occasion, IRZ and the Academy of Justice at the Supreme Court, organised an online seminar on "Policy to prevent corruption in the court system" on 7 April 2022.

The German expertise was represented by Mr. Helmut Leithäuser, Presiding Judge at the Regional Court of Wuppertal, and Mr. Wolf-Tilman Baumert, Head of the Economic Crime Department of the Wuppertal Public Prosecutor's Office.

Mr. Leithäuser presented the German anti-corruption policy during his lecture, focusing on the following priorities:

  • Statutory regulations to combat corruption in the Criminal Code
  • Service regulations and implementation in practice
  • Structure of the case law
  • Prevention within the courts

Mr. Baumert led the second part of the seminar and specifically addressed the prevention of corruption in the court system. He focused on the following topics:

  • Targets of corruption in the court system
  • The defence against the risk of corruption in the area of judicial decisions
  • The defence against the risk of corruption in the administrative activities of the judiciary
  • Response to the detection of violations

Approximately 35 judges from the Academy of Justice at the Supreme Court took part in the seminar. The event was followed by a lively discussion. It became apparent that issues concerning the position of judges in society, their financial and social security and the specific professional requirements were highly relevant to the Kazakh participants. The workload and attestation of judges and the question of whether they can be called to disciplinary responsibility were equally important issues for the Kazakh contingent. Subsequent events will therefore be organised.

Online Seminar on preventing and combating Corruption

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Published: December 20, 2021
Graphics: IRZ
Graphics: IRZ
Kazakhstan

In cooperation with Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies under the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, IRZ organised an online seminar on "Preventing and Combating Corruption" on 10 December 2021. IRZ was able to win the following experts for the event:

  • Dr. Frank Böhme, Desk Officer at the Federal Chancellery, Division 131 "Affairs of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Legal Office, IFG Coordination" as well as
  • Prof. Dr. jur. Bijan Nowrousian, Professor of Criminal Law and Administrative Offences Law at the Institute of the Police and Public Administration of North Rhine Westphalia HSPV NRW in Münster.

At the beginning of the event, Sagynysh Ayaganova, Ph. D., from the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan summarised the current situation of anti-corruption and corruption risk assessment in Kazakhstan.

Afterwards, the German experts addressed the following topics in their contributions:

  • legal framework of the repressive fight against corruption
  • causes of corruption
  • prevention of corruption
  • the role of public prosecutors and criminal law in the fight against corruption.

After the presentations, the participants had the opportunity to ask questions and exchange experiences. A total of about one hundred people were present. Among those represented from Kazakhstan were the Prosecutor General's Office, the regional prosecutor's offices, the Anti-Corruption Agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Committee for National Security, the Ministry for Disaster Management and the Financial Supervision Agency.

IRZ plans to continue advising on the fight against corruption in the Republic of Kazakhstan next year.