ARTICLE 19 Europe urges Kazakhstan to withdraw its current legislative efforts to penalise the so-called ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation’. We join Kazakhstan’s civil society in condemning these amendments for their devastating impact on freedom of expression and the country’s LGBT community. These overbroad and vague restrictions violate Kazakhstan’s international human rights obligations by imposing sweeping censorship that restricts freedom of expression. Far from protecting children or public morals, the amendments institutionalise discrimination, fuel social stigma, and increase the risks of violence and exclusion faced by LGBT people in Kazakhstan. Such legal measures undermine the principles of equality, human dignity, and non-discrimination, and threaten to silence all voices advocating for LGBT rights and inclusion.
At the end of October 2025, Kazakhstan’s Parliament sought to introduce changes to multiple laws, under the guise of regulating ‘harmful content,’ explicitly prohibiting and penalising content and expressions ‘propagating non-traditional sexual orientation’.
One of the most significant changes affects the ‘Law on the Rights of the Child,’ which lumps so-called ‘LGBT propaganda’ together with pornography and promotion of violence. The expansion of these restrictions is coupled with the introduction of ‘administrative’ sanctions for disseminating ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation’ (sometimes also referred to as ‘LGBT propaganda,’ or ‘homosexual propaganda’), which include fines and imprisonment.
Additionally, a range of other laws, including in the areas of media, culture, education, online platform regulation, and communications, were supplemented with corresponding amendments against LGBT propaganda. The concept of ‘non-traditional sexual orientation’ is deliberately paired in legislation with the mention of paedophilia.
These amendments are a part of a broader trend in the country, where the rhetoric of ‘protecting children’ is deployed to justify censorship and the policing of personal identity. This legislative shift also follows the blueprint of Russia’s 2013 LGBT propaganda ban, which has since been condemned by international and regional human rights bodies for legitimising discrimination and violence. ARTICLE 19 has also previously warned that prohibitions of ‘LGBT propaganda’ serve no other purpose than to silence and discriminate against a whole segment of the population.
Kazakhstan’s civil society organisations expressed utmost concern over this legislative package, fearing the broad enforcement of state censorship in the digital sphere and the punitive application of these amendments against the media, human rights defenders, and non-governmental organisations.
At present, the proposed legislation is under consideration in the Parliament. The crux of the proposal has been included in the draft law ‘On Amendments and Additions on Issues of Archival Affairs and the Restriction of Dissemination of Illegal Content,’ currently under the consideration in the Senate. The amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences are still being debated in the Mazhilis (the lower house of the Parliament of Kazakhstan). ARTICLE 19 Europe echoes the concerns of local civil society and urges the Government to ensure that any prohibitions of ‘LGBT propaganda’ are immediately removed from the legislation.
In the analysis, we outline that these amendments violate both Kazakhstan’s constitutional guarantees and international human rights obligations, and institutionalise discrimination, silence freedom of expression, and exacerbate the vulnerability and marginalisation of LGBT people and their right to live free from fear and stigma.