7 Mar 2018 17:45

Kazakh human rights commissioner says complaints over law enforcement have risen

ASTANA. March 7 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's human rights commissioner, Askar Shakirov, reviewed over 2,000 complaints in 2017 and assisted in 20.7% of cases to restore the rights of citizens.

"In 2017, 1,474 individual and collective complaints were reviewed out of 2,147 petitions filed," Shakirov's office said on Tuesday.

"A decline in complaints related to the improper handling of citizens' affairs by government agencies can be attributed to the ongoing institutional reforms in public administration," the office said.

"The number of complaints related to the performance of law enforcement agencies has increased significantly (38.2%) from the previous year, which is due in part to a higher degree of publicity through the National Preventive Mechanism Program, which allowed for more than 500 monitoring visits to closed institutions, " the office said.

"In total, 20.7% of the appeals to the commissioner have been confirmed to have restored the rights of citizens," the office said.