ASTANA – The Prime Minister’s press service published the outcomes of the Kazakh Justice Ministry’s work in the first half of 2024 оn July 31, aimed at developing national legislation, protecting citizens’ rights, strengthening international cooperation, as well as digitization and automation of public services.
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Rule-making
The ministry worked on the national legislation, providing legal expertise and support for 102 bills, 20 of which were signed into law by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Key laws are related to organic product circulation, women’s rights and children’s safety, renewable energy and electric power, education, healthcare, and business management.
The ministry also developed two significant draft laws to protect intellectual property rights and foster a conducive environment for the creative economy and investment. It is also taking measures to streamline the state registration of regulatory legal acts, aiming to reduce bureaucracy and improve the quality of legal services in state bodies.
Law expository work
To improve legal literacy and provide free legal assistance, the ministry organized the People’s Lawyer campaign, engaging around 1,500 legal experts who assisted over 150,000 citizens.
International cooperation
An important event was hosting the 11th online meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Ministers of Justice in Kazakhstan and signing several international agreements and memorandums with Italy, Lithuania, China, and Singapore.
The ministry is working on concluding 11 interstate treaties on legal assistance in civil cases with Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Ukraine, Croatia, South Africa, and Congo, two Hague Conventions on agreements on the choice of court and the conflict of laws concerning the form of testamentary dispositions, three protocols with Türkiye, the Minsk Convention, the Chisinau Convention, as well as nine interdepartmental international treaties – Memorandums of Cooperation with the Ministries of Justice of Japan, Qatar, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Finland, Poland, and Türkiye.
Protection of rights
The ministry introduced accelerated trademark registration processes and improved services for visually impaired people. A key development was signing a memorandum with the World Intellectual Property Organization and other entities to launch a master’s degree program in Intellectual Property and Business Law, which aims to train specialists in intellectual property.
The ministry also submitted a bill to the Mazhilis, a lower house of Parliament, to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty, which will facilitate access to published works for blind and visually impaired people, ensuring their equal participation in cultural and social life.
Digitization and automation of public services
The ministry implemented projects under the Digital Justice program to automate enforcement proceedings and register legal entities. In Taraz, a pilot project called “Robot” was launched. It automates enforcement proceedings and saves citizens nearly two billion tenge (US$4.2 million) in commissions. The project will be expanded nationwide in August.
Non-profit organizations can now register entirely online through the Electronic Government (eGov) portal, and a new service for issuing online powers of attorney has been introduced via eGovMobile Business, streamlining and expediting the process. The ministry also launched a pilot project that sends SMS and push notifications to citizens to combat fraud.
