Kazakh Senate OKs bill on fingerprinting
ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The upper chamber of the Kazakh Parliament - Senate - has adopted the Law "On fingerprinting and genome registration" at its plenary session today.
Minister of Internal Affairs Kalmukhanbet Kassymov who introduced the bill said that it establishes legal bases for the procedure of fingerprinting and genome registration and usage of the information obtained to identify a person.
In his words, the need to carry out fingerprinting and genome registration procedure is dictated by international practice and standards.
Starting from 2009 passports and IDs of the nationals of Kazakhstan are equipped with electronic chips that contain information about the holder, his or her photo and digital signature. However, in line with the present day international standards the passports should contain digital images of fingerprints.
According to Minister Kassymov, many countries have been issuing passports with digital images of fingerprints for years.
Internal affairs bodies of Kazakhstan will be responsible for collecting fingerprint information. Fingerprinting and genome registration will be carried out at foreign diplomatic missions of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The transport control committee and frontier guards will also be engaged in fingerprinting procedures.