Online Seminar on preventing and combating Corruption

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.

International Symposium on Constitutional Law

Kairat Mami, Chairman of the Constitutional Council (Photo: Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan)
Kairat Mami, Chairman of the Constitutional Council (Photo: Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan)
Kazakhstan

On 27 August 2021, to mark the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence and Constitution Day, the Constitutional Council of the Republic hosted an international symposium on “The Internet Era: The Rule of Law, the Values of Person and the State Independence”. 

This very high-level online event, opened by Kairat Mami, Chairman of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan, was attended by representatives of many international organisations, including: 

  • OSCE
  • European Council
  • Venice Commission
  • International Association of Lawyers
  • German Agency for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH or GIZ)
  • Court of the Eurasian Economic Union

On behalf of the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ), Managing Director Dr. Frauke Bachler delivered a welcome speech to the participants. 

The symposium was divided into three different subject areas.

  1. Digitisation and national sovereignty: complementary or mutually exclusive
  2. Respect for human rights and freedoms on the internet: private life and freedom
  3. The state and state power: responsibility towards society and people

Prof. Dr Andreas L. Paulus, a judge at the German Federal Constitutional Court, spoke on “The right to be forgotten in the case law of the German Federal Constitutional Court”.

Other presentations on current issues were given by presidents and judges of constitutional bodies from numerous countries. 

The symposium was a complete success as an international exchange of experience on the protection of human rights in the age of digitisation.

IRZ expert and patent attorney Manuel Soria Parra

IRZ expert and patent attorney Manuel Soria Parra
IRZ expert and patent attorney Manuel Soria Parra
Kazakhstan

On 29 June 2021, IRZ supported the seminar on the “Legal Protection of Unregistered Designs in the EU” organised and held by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Representatives of the European Commission, the European Patent Office, the Eurasian Patent Office and the state bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as Kazakh judges and patent attorneys, took part in the event.

IRZ expert Manuel Soria Parra, a patent attorney, participated in the event with a presentation on the “Unregistered Protection of industrial Designs”. He addressed the following questions and topics in his presentation:

  • What can be protected by Community designs?
  • The territorial scope of Community designs
  • Considerations of the legislator on the subject
  • Scope of unregistered Community designs
  • How do I obtain an unregistered Community design?
  • Co-existence of registered and unregistered Community designs

Manuel Soria Parra stressed that the EU Commission will revise the EU legislation on design protection after the successful reform of the EU trademark law. The aim here is to improve the accessibility and affordability of design protection in the EU and to ensure that the design protection regime better supports the transition to the digital and green economy.

In addition to the IRZ expert, the following speakers also participated in the event with expert contributions:

  • Tomas Lorenzo Eichenberg, Senior Expert, Intellectual Property Unit, European Commission
  • Julie Fiodorova, Head of the Legal Department of the Eurasian Patent Organisation
  • Aliya Dauylbayeva, Senior Expert, Department of Trademarks, Appellations of Origin and Designs, National Institute of Intellectual Property of the Republic of Kazakhstan

They gave detailed and clear presentations of the legal basis for unregistered designs and provided an international perspective on the protection of unregistered designs in the EU.

At the end of the event, the Kazakh participants asked numerous technical questions, which were answered extensively by the speakers.

The aim of the seminar was to look at the experiences of EU countries in terms of the protection of unregistered designs in the EU and this objective was successfully implemented in a highly productive manner.