K.Saudabayev met with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
ASTANA. March 3. KAZINFORM Kazakh Secretary of State - Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev has held a meeting with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today in the first day of his visit to Switzerland and the UN institutions of Geneva. K.Saudabayev said that Kazakhstan is committed to the further development of democracy and human rights both on the national and international levels, Kazinform refers to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.
K.Saudabayev informed on the measures that Kazakhstan takes in the field of improvement of human rights protection, including adoption and realization of the National Action Plan on Human Rights till 2012.
As the OSCE chairman Kazakhstan plans to activate humanitarian dimension of the Organization. The OSCE top-level Conference on tolerance and non-discrimination that is scheduled on June 29-30 in Astana will be the key event in this sphere. K.Saudabayev invited N.Pillay to visit Kazakhstan and deliver a speech at the Conference.
He also stressed the importance of development of the cooperation between Kazakhstan and the UN institutions, noting that Kazakhstan is ready to consider the issue of continuation of voluntary donations in order to support the activity of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
N.Pillay noted that the struggle against discrimination including the discrimination on the grounds of religion of beliefs is the key priority of the OHCHR for coming two years and expressed hope on close interaction with Kazakhstan in this field taking into account its achievements.
She also expressed hope that chairing the OSCE Kazakhstan will keep on demonstrating qualitative superiority on the issues of democracy. N.Pillay expressed readiness of the OHCHR to support Kazakhstan in execution of the National Action and Recommendations Plan submitted for consideration last month.
Later in this day K.Saudabayev addressed a message to the UN Council on Human Rights representing the plan of the Government in this field. He also noted that Kazakhstan announced his candidacy for membership in the Council on Human Rights for 2012-2015 and expects international support.