The ITUC has harshly condemned the sentencing of Kazakhstan trade union leader Erlan Baltabay. Efforts to improve freedom of association for working people are once again jeopardised; but the country’s new leadership could still intervene.

Erlan Baltabay, the leader of the Oil and Energy workers’ union based in the southern city of Shymkent, has today been sentenced to 7 years in prison as well as to a 7-year ban on conducting any public activity. The trade union which he led was dissolved by the court amid a broader crackdown on independent trade union activity. The criminal proceedings against Baltabay were opened in retaliation for his trade union activism and principled position in support of other leaders of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan (CITUK) condemned to different limitations of their freedoms. These criminal proceedings, as well as those against CITUK’s Larisa Kharkova, Amin Eleusinov and Nurbek Kushakpaev, silence and repress leaders of independent trade unions and prevent others from taking an active role in implementing real freedom of association in the country.

“It is an outrage that the independent voices of working people are being systematically smothered. Kazakhstan’s repression is internationally recognised, and instead of deepening this crisis, the country’s new leadership must step in to build social consensus and resolve the situation by committing to a rights-based approach. This is a defining first test for recently elected President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,” said Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary.