International human rights organisations welcomed Kazakh...

International human rights organisations welcomed Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's initiatives aimed at making criminal law more humane and introducing life imprisonment as an alternative to the death penalty. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) office in Almaty, the office of Penal Reform International (PRI) in Central Asia, Kazakhstan's International Bureau on Human Rights and the Observance of Legality and the Institute for Enhancing Skills of Judges all spoke in favour of the Kazakh president's stance. "The OSCE office in Almaty welcomes Kazakhstan's intention to carry on with reforms in the area of the supremacy of law. All the points mentioned by the head of state in his state of the nation address are the main areas of our office's activities," a human dimensions expert at the OSCE's office in Almaty, Fabrizio Vielmini, said.