last updated November 20, 2003

Introduction
Once a multiethnic Soviet republic, the Republic of Kazakhstan has become a Kazakh-dominated state since independence in 1991. Massive emigration of non-Kazakhs, along with government policies supporting “Kazakhization,” have diminished both the size and the influence of Slavic and European ethnic groups in Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, pressure from the Chinese government has spurred official repression of Uighur leaders and community members, including a prominent female Uighur activist.

History and current situation of minority groups
Kazakhstan’s principal ethnic minority groups are Russians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans and Uighurs. Ethnic Russians enjoyed political and cultural dominance in the Soviet years, but an estimated one to 1.4 million Russians have left Kazakhstan since independence. Still, ethnic Russians constitute well over a quarter of the country’s population today. Ethnic Ukrainians, who tend to be linguistically and culturally Russified, have declined from 5.4 percent of Kazakhstan’s population in 1989 to 3.7 percent in 1999. Ethnic Germans - descendants of Germans deported by Stalin from the Volga German Autonomous Republic following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union - at one time formed 7.1 percent of the total population of present-day Kazakhstan . Since independence, however, nearly two-thirds of the country’s ethnic German population have emigrated, mainly to Germany. Kazakhstan’s Uighur community includes an estimated few thousand undocumented Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang province. Uighurs, a Turkic people whose dominant religion is Islam, have historically inhabited Xinjiang province. However, their ongoing and sometimes violent separatist struggle against Chinese rule has, for centuries, spurred waves of Uighur emigration to Central Asia.

Issues faced by ethnic minority women
The post-independence policy of “Kazakhization,” which has included the official adoption of Kazakh as the sole state language, has affected all ethnic groups in the country, reducing the political and economic status of Russians and other non-titular groups. Non-Kazakhs, who tend not to be proficient in Kazakh, have experienced employment and educational discrimination, while ethnic Kazakhs have benefitted from preferential treatment in these areas. The official promotion of the Kazakh language has led several schools and universities to adopt Kazakh as the medium of instruction, further disadvantaging non-Kazakh speakers. Concern over a deterioration of their political status following the adoption of the language law has been cited as the main catalyst for emigration of Russian-speakers since 1991.

Concurrently, ethnic minorities in Kazakhstan are facing political marginalization. Territorial gerrymandering has produced Kazakh majorities in the newly constituted regions. Minority groups experience difficulty forming organizations to advocate their issues in the political arena: while the Constitution authorizes ethnic groups to form cultural centers, it prohibits the formation of public associations or political parties that have ethnic, religious, or nationalist identities. Further, a law requiring organizations to be registered with the Ministry of Justice serves as an important screening function against the formation of organizations. The Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan, established in 1995 ostensibly to comply with the recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, includes members appointed by the president rather than by their supposed constituents; the assembly lacks any juridical power and its members are encouraged to engage in cultural, rather than political, activities. Emigration of non-Kazaks has reduced the country’s population by nearly two million over the past decade, further reducing the social and political power of these groups.

Uighurs in Kazakhstan face additional challenges stemming from their perceived connections to the ongoing separatist struggle in western China. The Chinese government has placed mounting pressure on Kazakh authorities to arrest and deport suspected Uighur “ethnic separatists.” In 1996, Kazakhstan signed a treaty committing to support China in combating the problem of “Uighur separatism” and to refuse shelter to suspected terrorists. Human rights groups have claimed that this treaty’s signatories have secretly agreed to extradite to China Uighur activists seeking political asylum in Russia and Central Asia. Indeed, in February 1999, the Kazakh government faced widespread international criticism when its Ministry of National Security deported three Uighurs wanted in China as “separatists,” without considering their asylum claims; the three were later executed in China.

Uighur activists in Central Asia have been targeted for persecution by authorities accusing them of sympathizing with and supporting banned Islamic opposition movements in Central Asia. Various Uighur rights advocacy groups have alleged prejudicial treatment, bureaucratic obstacles to their work, and stereotyping of Uighur activists as “separatists” or “terrorists.” In 2001, a prominent and highly respected female Uighur activist, Dilbrim Samsakova, was “disappeared.” Her remains, found several weeks later, indicated that she had been killed. Ms. Samsakova, founder of an organization to aid Uighur women and children from China and Central Asia, had been working to prevent the extradition to China of the widow and children of a Uighur suspected of violent political activism, and had also observed the trial of four Uighurs charged with terrorism in Kyrgyzstan. In 1998, Hashir Wahidi, chairman of Uyghuristan Liberation Organization in Kazakhstan, was fatally attacked in his home; his case remains unsolved.

Compiled from:

U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Background Notes: Kazakhstan, May 2003

United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Working Group on Minorities, Ninth Session, Minorities and Participation in Public Life: Kazakhstan, 12-16 May 2003. 

 Freedom House, Nations in Transit 2003: Kazakhstan.

Amnesty International, Kyrgyzstan: Appeal Cases, 25 May 2001.

Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Inc., Central Asia: Uighurs Say States Yield To Chinese, 29 March 2001.

East Turkistan Information Center, Three Uyghur Political Asylum Seekers Deported from Kazakstan to China, 12 February 1999.

Human Rights Watch, World Report 2002: Kazakhstan

Uyghur Information Agency, Prominent Uyghur Chairwoman in Kazakhstan Murdered in Cold Blood, 10 June 2001.