ASIA/KAZAKHSTAN - DEATH PENALTIES SUSPENDED: GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES CONCRETE STEPS TOWARDS ELIMINATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Thursday, 8 January 2004

Astana (Fides Service) – The first step towards its definitive abolition: a suspension of death penalties decreed at the end of 2003 by President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, has been welcomed by the people of Kazakhstan including the Catholic community.
In the country’s constitution article 15 affirms the right of “every citizen to life”, whereas the new Penal Code adopted in 1997 abandoned repressive systems and sought to absorb ideas such as respect for human rights and the dignity of the person. The country, since its independence from the USSR obtained in 1991, is moving towards the constitution of a modern, advanced democracy and it was the first of the central Asian former Soviet territories to welcome Pope John Paul II in September 2001, only days after the attack on the Twin Towers.
The basis of the country’s economy is mainly farming but also its rich oil resources, while the government has started an ambitious reform programme based on social welfare, modernisation of administration, education to development of little and medium enterprises. Among a population of 16 million, Christians are 16%, and of these 180,000 are Catholics.
(PA) (Fides Service 8/1/2004 lines 23 words 212)


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