Kazakhstan - World report 2020 - A significant increase in protest activity

 - What about the situation in Kazakhstan now? 

"A leadership change in Kazakhstan in 2019 did not significantly improve respect for human rights. On March 19, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev resigned after 30 years in power, naming Senate speaker Kassym-Jomart Tokaev as interim president. In snap elections in June, Tokaev ran as the ruling party candidate and won in a vote marred by irregularities. The authorities responded to widespread peaceful protests around the elections with mass detentions. Kazakhstan continued to unfairly jail rights activist Max Bokaev, and intensified harassment of perceived or actual opposition members. Independent trade unions remained stymied by the government’s ongoing failure to reform the 2014 Trade Union Law."

HRW (Human Rights Watch) hrw.org: Kazakhstan (Full text)

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/kazakhstan

"Freedom of assembly": "There was a significant increase in protest activity in Kazakhstan in 2019. In the build-up to elections in June, authorities denied permits for peaceful protests, regularly broke up demonstrations, and detained participants of single-person pickets. One man was detained just for holding up a blank poster. --- Freedom of expression: According to Adilsoz, a local media watchdog, there were 54 detentions, arrests, convictions, or limits on the freedom of journalists between January and September. There were eight attacks, including during a press conference in July hosted by a human rights group in which five journalists had equipment damaged or stolen. Radio Azattyq, the Kazakh-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, complained of repeated interference in its work, including attacks with pepper spray."

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