CAT/C/KAZ/CO/2
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(e) The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime in 2008.
4.
The Committee welcomes the recent legislative measures taken by the State party since
the consideration of its previous report, namely:
(a) Enactment of articles 347-1 and 107 in the Criminal Code, addressing some of the
elements in the definition of torture and cruel treatment and making it a specific
criminal offence;
(b) Amendment of article 116 of the Code of Criminal Procedure making statements
obtained through the use of torture inadmissible as evidence;
(c) Legislative amendments in 2003 making trafficking in human beings an offence under
the Criminal Code and strengthening the power to investigate, prosecute, and convict
traffickers.
5.
The Committee also notes with satisfaction the following developments:
(a) Establishment of the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) in 2002;
(b) Establishment of a Central Public Monitoring Commission in 2005 and regional
independent public monitoring commissions in 2004, with the authority to inspect
detention facilities;
(c) Reforms of the criminal justice system, decriminalization of a number of offences and
the introduction of probation and community service and other forms of alternative
sentencing, leading to a decrease in the total population incarcerated and the
improvement of conditions of detention;
(d) Preparation and distribution to all detainees of a pamphlet informing them of their
rights, and public information on the reforms being carried out in correctional
institutions;
(e) Adoption of a national programme on combating violence against women in the police
system at the regional level;
(f) Development of a programme for the training of internal affairs officers in international
human rights norms, aimed at the improvement of their professional skills, legal
thinking and legal culture;
(g) Reduction of the scope of the application of the death penalty, extension of the
moratorium on death penalty in 2004, and amendment of the Criminal Code to
introduce life imprisonment instead of capital punishment.