OSCE Centre in Astana head stresses OSCE support at Constitution Day conference

The Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana, Ambassador Natalia Zarudna, attended a two-day high-level conference in Kazakhstan on “Constitution: the foundation of social and state modernization,” which was held on 30 and 31 August 2012 in Astana.

The conference, which marked Constitution Day and the tenth anniversary of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Kazakhstan, gathered chairs of the constitutional courts, representatives of the highest judicial and prosecutorial bodies, NGOs and academics from Ukraine, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Austria, Belarus, Poland and other counties. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, opened the event.

Addressing the conference on the second day, Zarudna stressed the OSCE’s willingness to assist Kazakhstan in strengthening constitutional rights and freedoms in line with the OSCE commitments. She also outlined some areas of constitutional justice and law-enforcement practice to be further improved in view of the social modernization program recently introduced by President Nazarbayev.

The Conference was co-organized by the Constitutional Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Kazakhstan.