Fromleft to right: B.Imashev, Ministry of Justice of the RK; N. Ermekbayev, Presidential aid; I. Rogov, Head of the Constitutional Council; I.Merkel, First Deputy Attorney General
From 12 to 13 March 2015 an international roundtable took place in Ak-Bulak near Almaty in Kazakhstan dealing with "The Modernisation of the Criminal Procedure as a Guarantee for the Effectiveness of the System of Legal Protection and Implementation of the Human Rights Potential of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan" in cooperation with the Office of the Public Prosecutor General of the Republic of Kazakhstan as well as the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The conference was attended by high-level Kazakh representatives of the Presidential Administration, the Office of the Public Prosecutor General, the Constitutional Council, Parliament, the Ministries of Justice, Internal Affairs and Finance as well as of the Supreme Court, and representatives of the OSCE Astana, the United Nations and the Venice Commission. Dr Jürgen Oehlerking, retired State Secretary (Ministry of Justice of Lower Saxony) was involved from the German side with a contribution about the preliminary procedure in Germany.
The conference was a first exchange of experience gained after the new code of criminal procedure came into effect. It was kicked off with a presentation by Iogan Merkel (1st Deputy Public Prosecutor General), presenting the main amendments of the new code of criminal procedure, followed by a presentation of individual legal norms and a discussion of their application.
The IRZ has advised the Republic of Kazakhstan since 2010 about the reform of the criminal law. The new code of criminal procedure and the new criminal code came into effect on 1 January 2015. This year, the consultations will focus on the application of the new legal norms.
From 12 to 13 February 2015 the IRZ organised the international conference "Legal Arrangements of foreign Countries in the Sphere of Civil Service and Counteraction of Corruption" in cooperation with the newly founded Agency on Civil Service Affairs and Counteraction of Corruption of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The conference focussed on international best practices in the fight against corruption and the practical consequences of these practices in Kazakhstan. There was a particular interest in the German contributions. The German experts participating in the conference were Jürgen Maurer, former Vice President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, and Bijan Nowrousian from the Public Prosecutor's Office in Kiel, who gave six presentations at the conference altogether and thus gave a comprehensive insight into the fight against corruption in Germany.
Apart from representatives of the Kazakh Prosecutor General's Office, the Regional Court of Kostanay and regional security and administrative authorities, speakers from the EU, Transparency Kazakhstan, UNDP and the US Embassy took part in the conference. A follow-up conference is planned for this year in Germany in cooperation with the Kazakh Anti-Corruption Agency and the Academy for Public Administration.
European Patent Office: Berik Imashev (centre), Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan: Raimund Lutz (left), Vice-President, Directorate-General Legal/International Affairs of the European Patent Office
“Intellectual property” was the topic of a study trip to Berlin and Munich from 1 to 5 December organised by the IRZ for a delegation from the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan.The delegation was headed by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr Berik Imashev.He was accompanied by the Head of Department of the Ministry of Justice in charge and his staff.
The delegation visited the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, the Federal Patent Court, the European Patent Office, the German Patent and Trademark Office, the German Chamber of Patent Attorneys as well as Siemens AG.They discussed the topics patent law, the European patent system, trademark law as well as other issues of intellectual property with the respective experts.The delegation was received by the President of the Federal Patent Court, the Vice-President of the German Patent and Trademark Office, the Vice-President Directorate-General Legal/International Affairs of the European Patent Office as well as by the Chief Executive and members of the German Chamber of Patent Attorneys.
The Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan and further members of the delegation pointed out how important the consultations in the field of intellectual property were for Kazakhstan.The German experiences, they continued, played a particularly important role.
The study trip marked the start of a cooperation between the IRZ and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of intellectual property, agreed between the Deputy Kazakh Minister of Justice, Ms Elvira Azimova, and the IRZ Director, Mr Dirk Mirow, on the sidelines of the Fourth Conference of the Ministers of Justice of the European Union and Central Asia in Astana in October 2014.
