The speakers were Director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law Yevgeny Zhovtis and human rights expert Tatiana Chernobil. The workshop was moderated by the Regional director of LPRC, international lawyer Ayazhan Oirat.
The main purpose of training journalists is based on the principles and values of a culture of respect, mutual understanding and integration. The ultimate goal is to help prevent the spread of harmful stereotypes in the media that exacerbate the segregated image of society, as well as to provide journalists with useful resources for self-study.
The participants of the training were journalists of the news agencies “Kazinform”, “Inbusiness”, “BAK”, “Azattyk rukhy”, “Orda”, “Aikyn”, “Informburo”, the TV channel “Kazakhstan”, “Factcheck”, “Minber”, citizen journalists, as well as students of the Faculty of Journalism of the Suleyman Demirel University, KAZGUU named after M.S. Narikbayev, and Karaganda State University named after academician E.A. Buketov.
“The mass media have a great responsibility because they establish common cultural guidelines and critically monitor trends and events, influence people’s perception and understanding of various processes. Responsible media promote intercultural dialogue, diversity, and social cohesion in the country in order to build an inclusive society,” Ayazhan Oirat said during a live broadcast.
Yevgeny Zhovtis noted the need to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that would prohibit discrimination on any grounds. During the development and adoption of the framework law on equality, he proposed to consider the example of anti-discrimination legislation, institutions and procedures of Moldova as a post-Soviet state with similar initial conditions.
As part of the workshop, practical exercises were conducted to study the personal resources of the training participants in the development of gender equality in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The speakers told how to avoid hate speech in their materials, noted the role of journalists in supporting the anti-discrimination agenda, and also shared resources on where and under what articles to look for statistics on discrimination. In turn, Tatiana Chernobil told reporters about the anti-discrimination standards reflected in Kazakh legislation and international documents such as the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The presentations demonstrated during the workshop are available in the library of the website:
Presentation by E.Zhovtis:https://lprc.kz/ru/prezentacziya-e-zhovtisa-2022-12-06-ru/ (in Russian) https://lprc.kz/ru/prezentacziya-e-zhovtisa-2022-12-06-kaz/ (in Kazakh); Presentation by T.Chernobil:https://lprc.kz/ru/nediskriminacziya-dekabr-2022/
Recordings of speakers’ speeches can be viewed at the links:
E.Zhovtis:https://youtu.be/H4e5RWUsnJ0 ; T.Chernobil:https://youtu.be/9_Sis579Jb0 (in Russian), https://youtu.be/TcJVc118uoc (in Kazakh) A.Oirat:https://youtu.be/xP3U0hfj7BQ (in Russian); https://youtu.be/SqDseMpRJY4 (in Kazakh)
This training was organized within the framework of the project “Promotion of the anti-discrimination agenda in Kazakhstan through an advocacy campaign and training of journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders and lawyers”, which is implemented by the Legal Policy Research Centre (LPRC), supported by CFLI (Canada Fund for Local Initiatives).
