Kazakhstan, Astana, April 27 / Trend , K.Arynova/
United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Manfred Novak will visit Kazakhstan on May 5-14 in 2009 upon the government's invitation, UN Kazakh Department Official Daniyar Serikov told Trend .
"To collect information on mandate, Novak will meet with officials of the Kazakh government, national human rights institutes, as well as with representatives of the civil society and international organizations, including representatives of the UN agencies. He will also visit jails," Serikov said.
On May 13, the independent expert will hold a news conference to share the preliminary collected information with media after briefing with the governmental officials. The collected information will be described in the report of the Human Rights Council together with conclusions and recommendations.
The representation reported that the UN Human Rights Commission appointed Novak a Special Rapporteur on Dec. 1 in 2004. The Special Rapporteur is independent from any government and acts in line with his mandate. First, the commission decided to commission the special rapporteur to examine precedents where violence is used in 1985. The UN Human Rights Council's mandate functions in all countries, including those which did not ratify the Convention against torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Novak participated in the Working group on forced disappearance, was the UN expert on search of missed people in former Yugoslavia, as well as UN expert on juridical issues of forced disappearance and judge at the Human Rights Protection Chamber in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Novak is the professor and teacher of the constitutional right and human rights at the Vienna University and director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights.
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