ARTICLE 19 is deeply concerned by the recent conviction of 19 activists in Kazakhstan for their involvement in peaceful protest in 2025 against ongoing gross human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang Province. We are doubly alarmed that the conviction appears to follow direct pressure from Beijing urging Kazakh authorities to crack down on peaceful protest of China’s human rights record. Such actions are part of Beijing’s broader campaign of transnational repression of protesters around the world, as documented in our 2025 report Going Global: China’s transnational repression of protesters worldwide. ARTICLE 19 calls on Kazakh authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the imprisoned Kazakh activists, uphold the right to peaceful protest, which is protected under international human rights law, and resist transnational repression from China.
On 13 April a court in Kazakhstan sentenced 11 of the activists to five years in prison for criminal incitement, while meting out non-custodial sentences restricting liberty for the remaining eight defendants. According to Radio Free Europe, some family members were ordered to leave the courthouse during the proceedings, while journalists were barred outright and forced to follow proceedings via a live feed.
The charges originated following a protest in November 2025, during which activists affiliated with the Atajurt movement burned Chinese flags, portraits of China’s leader Xi Jinping, and demanded the release of Kazakh citizens detained in Xinjiang. Atajurt often organises protests in Kazakhstan to raise awareness of China’s human rights abuses against Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and other marginalized ethnicities in the region., including in front of the Chinese embassy or consulate, and during Chinese officials’ state visits to the country.
There are approximately 1.6 million ethnic Kazakhs in China’s Xinjiang Province – the human rights community prefers to use the name East Turkistan – making them the second largest ethnic group in the province, second to the region’s estimated 11 million Uyghurs. Like Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Western China, Kazakhs have faced persecution, surveillance, torture, and mass internment. Some of those who have been targeted are citizens of Kazakhstan.
Reportedly, a day after the November protest the Chinese consulate in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, lodged a diplomatic note with Kazakh authorities elevating Beijing’s position that the protest was an ‘open provocation’ against China and ‘an insult to the Communist Party of China and China’s leader’ and called on Kazakhstan to ‘seriously investigate’. While initially having filed lesser administrative charges against the protesters, following the diplomatic note, Kazakh authorities escalated to the more serious incitement to ‘social, national, ethnic, racial, class or religious hatred’ under Article 174 of Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code. Radio Free Europe has reported that the diplomatic note is explicitly cited as a key justification for the criminal charges.
China’s mounting influence fuels rising transnational repression
China has become Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner under the Belt and Road Initiative, investing considerable economic and political capital to influence Kazakhstan, especially in areas of infrastructure and technology. In return, Kazakhstan has offered assurances that it will not join any alliances or treaties that could harm ‘the sovereignty and security of China’, and that it is committed to deeper cooperation in supporting China on Taiwan- and Uyghur-related affairs, including ‘to arrest activists opposed to China’s expanding economic influence in Kazakhstan’.
This is not the first case of Kazakhstan authorities persecuting activists who protest against China’s human rights abuses. For example, as noted in our report Going Global, activists have faced ongoing harassment and reoccurring arbitrary detention, including a case of one activist dying in detention. Some of those targeted have fled the country. ‘Because I protested outside the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan, I believe that it’s the Chinese government that put pressure on the Kazakh government to target me,’ activist Baibolat Kunbolat told ARTICLE 19. ‘As it’s threatening to my family, I have no choice but to find ways to leave Kazakhstan.’
The recent mass prosecution appears to send a signal to civil society activists in Kazakhstan: if you protest against China, you will face serious consequences.
ARTICLE 19 reiterates that the right to peaceful protest is protected under international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Kazakhstan is a party. Any restrictions must meet strict tests of legality, necessity, and proportionality. The criminal prosecution of individuals for participating in a peaceful protest, including through expressive acts such as flag burning, violates these standards and risks having a chilling effect on civic space.
Authorities in Kazakhstan continue to disproportionately apply overly broad terrorism and ‘extremism’ legislation as a common tool to silence dissenting voices in Kazakhstan. We have previously raised concerns about Article 174 of the Kazakh Criminal Code, which criminalises a broad range of offences, including incitement to ‘social, national, tribal, racial, class, or religious discord’. This provision is vague, overly broad, and open to abuse, enabling authorities to suppress freedom of speech and target civil society under the pretext of combating ‘hate speech’, including in cases involving peaceful expression such as satire or criticism, and to impose disproportionate penalties such as fines or imprisonment.
ARTICLE 19 calls on the Kazakhstan authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the 11 activists sentenced to prison and dismiss the charges against them and the other targeted activists. Kazakhstan should protect, promote, and ensure the right to peaceful protest, including those exercising their rights to draw attention to China’s gross human rights abuses. The authorities should review all laws and policies related to the exercise of the right to protest, repeal Article 174 of the Criminal Code, and make other necessary amendments in line with international human rights law.
Kazakhstan must resist escalating pressure from Beijing to be complicit in mounting transnational repression.