Kazakhstan held the first meeting on the petition against “LGBT propaganda”

In June, the petition “We are against open and hidden LGBT propaganda in the Republic of Kazakhstan!”, published on the official portal “E-Petition.kz”, collected 50 thousand signatures. Now the Ministry of Culture is organising meetings of a working group that is considering the homophobic petition. The working group includes representatives of stakeholders, government agencies and public associations.

Journalists were not allowed into the first meeting, but the head of the legal service of Media Qoldau, Gulmira Birzhanova, spoke about its progress. Information about how the consideration of the homophobic petition went was published by Orda.kz media.

The working group included more than 50 people - deputies, representatives of government bodies, social activists, experts and human rights activists. The meeting itself lasted two hours and was accompanied by emotional discussions, during which various aspects were touched upon, including the bill on Mass Media, the Criminal Code and international documents.

First of all, Gulmira Birzhanova raised the question of the legitimacy of the petition, since earlier the media reported that some Kazakhstanis were forced to vote for a homophobic petition. However, representatives of the Ministry of Culture stated that all signatures were verified and they received no complaints from signatories.

At the same time, Birzhanova emphasised the importance of compliance with Kazakhstan’s international obligations. She stated that granting this petition would be a violation of human rights and contrary to commitments to the OSCE and the UN. She suggested seeking advice from international bodies to obtain their expert assessment.

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