As part of our “Building the capacity of the legal community to provide legal aid and protect the right to peaceful assembly”, with the financial support of the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan, we launched a series of video interviews. The purpose of the video interviews is to describe the process of holding peaceful assemblies in Kazakhstan from different perspectives: from participants, lawyers and human rights defenders.
We bring to your attention the final interview with the expert, sociologist Kamila Kovyazina. In this episode we will try to understand why Kazakhstan people go to peaceful assemblies, how the attitude to peaceful assemblies has changed in our country during the last years and what factors have influenced this.
Within the framework of the discussed topic the following questions were considered:
- For what reasons do Kazakhstan people come out to peaceful assemblies?
- How has the public’s mood and attitude toward peaceful assemblies changed over the years? What factors are influencing this?
- Are there an increasing number of protests?
- How can we characterize the portrait of the modern Kazakhstan activist?
- What impact do social networks have on civic activism?
- What age groups most often come out for protests and peaceful assemblies?
Then Kamila Kovyazina talks about the impact and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on civic activism in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The interview also discusses the growth of cohesion among society, including for their rights, and provides projections for the development of civic engagement in the country as of 2021.
The recording of this video interview is available in Russian here.
