Associate Professor of ENU’s Sociology Department Dinara Yessimova has participated in a side event on democratic transformations in Kazakhstan at the United Nations (Geneva)

Associate Professor of the Sociology Department of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, PhD in Social Work, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Professional Social Workers Dinara Yessimova at a side event entitled “Kazakhstan’s Democratic Transformations: Political and Social Rights” taking place at the United Nations in Geneva with the participation of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Republic of Kazakhstan and representatives of the civil society, spoke about the role of civil society in strengthening social policy and protecting the rights of vulnerable groups.

Representatives of Kazakhstan informed about the political and social reforms in the country.

The event was organized as part of the defense of the fourth National Report of the Republic of Kazakhstan under the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights in order to present to the international community Kazakhstan’s achievements in the field of democratic transformation, as well as social and political reforms aimed at protecting human rights and developing an inclusive society.

The event was moderated by Lyazzat Kaltayeva, Chairman of the Council on Inclusion at the Senate of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who outlined the key areas of the agenda.

Speaking at the side event at the United Nations, Dinara Yessimova, Associate Professor of the ENU’s Sociology Department, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Professional Social Workers, noted:

“It is encouraging that, compared with Kazakhstan’s protection of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2019, the voice of social workers has become heard on the agenda of protecting social, cultural and economic human rights. This is reflected in expert activity at the Parliamentary level and the development of recommendations for socio-economic development. It is especially important that at least 117 indicators out of 169 indicators of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are related to the development of social work as a profession and practice in countries. Social work is critically important in approaching the SDGs related to children, only 15% can be achieved by 2030, and this will not be possible without the development of social work in countries. That is why we believe that by the next defense of the UPR by Kazakhstan, we will be able to say that we have been able to introduce a social worker for children in every secondary school and every orphanage in Kazakhstan.”

Dinara Yessimova also noted that the National Alliance of Professional Social Workers was established in 2019 on the initiative of the ENU faculty.  According to her, the Alliance, with the assistance of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan, has developed a free online training course for more than 30,000 people with disabilities and individual assistants in order to support social workers. It is available on the website https://skills.enbek.kz/

The side event brought together a wide range of participants, including representatives of international organizations, the diplomatic corps, human rights NGOs and the expert community, which contributed to an open dialogue on the development of human rights in Kazakhstan.

The UN member states expressed support for the measures being taken to implement ambitious reforms, and also welcomed the adoption of concrete steps to strengthen fundamental human rights and freedoms in Kazakhstan.

The report of the Working Group on the UPR of Kazakhstan with the recommendations of the UN member states will be approved by the Human Rights Council during its 59th session in June 2025.