Kazakh delegation visits Washington
The visit was aimed at presentation of three main documents in the sphere of political development of Kazakhstan: Concept of Legal Policy for 2010-2020, National Human Rights Action Plan for 2009-2012 and Ombudsman's Report over 2008. These documents are a kind of a road map of the evolutionary development if Kazakhstan in the sphere of democracy and human rights and demonstrate the country's intension to continue improvement of the legal system and national legislation. The delegation members talked about it at bilateral meetings with the official representatives of the USA, NGO and expert community.
The key event of the visit was these documents presentation in the US Congress. The event was opened by welome speeches of the American legislators. Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the US Congress Eni Faleomavaega noted importance of the Kazakh chairmanship for the whole OSCE space and the Organization's future. He outlined Kazakhstan's positive role at the international arena and noted the country's experience in the sphere of mass destruction weapons nonproliferation, and leadership in the political and economic development in central Asia.
The presentation and roundtable held in the Capitol Hill became the first event in the history of the Kazakh-US relations, which gathered officials of Kazakhstan, representatives of human rights and expert circles of the countries, American legislators and representatives of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. Such format gave opportunity to all participants to express their opinion and discuss political development of Kazakhstan, and it allows to overcome some stereotypes and inform the US legislators and expert community of the reforms processes in Kazakhstan.
Within the framework of the visit the delegation members took part in the conference titled "Kazakhstan and future of law supremacy" organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The delegation members carried out bilateral negotiations with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Nancy McEldowney, management of the U.S. State Department's Office of Global Women's Issues and representatives of the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. A.Sekishev met with the group of authoritative lawyers of the USA, members of the American Bar Association, who were interested in establishing cooperation with the Kazakh colleagues for exchange of experience and rendering legal support in political and social-economic development of Kazakhstan. The opportunity of creation of the Kazakh-US legal association was also considered.
Within the framework of the visit A.Sekishev met with Deputy Attorney General of the United States David W. Ogden, who is responsible for the issues of the US cooperation in the sphere of countering international crime. M.Zharbussynova held a meeting with the Vital Voices International American NGO, which is engaged in promotion of women's' rights and their integration into political, economic and social life of countries of the world.