Group: Kazakh record on human rights poor

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe should put pressure on Kazakhstan to improve its human rights record, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Kazakhstan takes over the rotating chairmanship of the group from Greece in January. OSCE foreign ministers, meeting next week for the ministerial council, should persuade Kazakhstan to take action before it becomes chairman, Human Rights Watch said.

"Kazakhstan's poor human rights record made it a controversial choice to begin with," said Andrea Berg, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "OSCE foreign ministers should use the Athens meeting to send a clear message that as Kazakhstan assumes the organization's chairmanship, it needs to bring its human rights record in line with OSCE standards."

While Kazakhstan made some reforms early this year, in recent months it has cracked down on news media and the Internet, sued government critics and imprisoned one human rights advocate for four years, Berg said.

Kazakhstan has said it wants to end its chairmanship by hosting an OSCE summit, which would be the first since 1999. The Kazakh government should be told that depends on improving its human rights record, Berg said.