In June, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture and Information said it was reviewing a petition, “We Are against Open and Hidden LGBT Propaganda in Kazakhstan!” initiated by the head of Kazakhstan’s Union of Parents, a public association, after the petition met threshold requirements to be considered by the government.
The government of Kazakhstan should reject this discriminatory and stigmatizing petition, whose proposal would violate human rights across the country.
The petition, seen by Human Rights Watch, calls on Kazakh authorities to introduce a law banning so-called “open and hidden LGBT propaganda in Kazakhstan” and impose penalties for such material, under the guise of “protecting children.” It could potentially lead to draft legislation or amendments of existing laws. The law on petitions gives the ministry 40 working days to review the petition and a response is anticipated by August 5.
The petition falls outside the criteria set out in national legislation, which explicitly excludes proposals that flout “human rights and freedoms.” The content of the petition openly discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and misuses the rhetoric of protecting children to restrict fundamental freedoms. It refers to Russia’s laws banning “nontraditional sexual relationships propaganda,” which have been universally condemned by human rights bodies. If taken up, this “propaganda” proposal would breach Kazakhstan’s international human rights obligations on nondiscrimination and freedom of expression, opinion, information, association, and assembly.
Despite its international obligations, Kazakhstan does not include sexual orientation or gender identity as a ground for protection against discrimination in its laws, and authorities have in the past denied registration to nongovernmental organization engaged in LGBT rights activism. In 2023, the United Nations Committee against Torture expressed concern about “violence against individuals on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity” and called on the authorities to end such violence.
Harassment, discrimination, and the threat of violence already color the everyday lives of LGBT people in Kazakhstan. If authorities choose to support this petition, they would be making a difficult reality even worse by endorsing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Kazakhstan’s international partners should publicly condemn attempts to glorify homophobic and transphobic rhetoric. The government should immediately halt this harmful proposal and work with human rights organizations and LGBT activists to improve protections rather than eroding them.
