(Adnkronos) – Kazakhstan’s parliament has approved a law banning the “promotion of pedophilia and/or non-traditional sexual orientations” in public spaces and media, a measure that mirrors anti-LGBTQ+ regulations introduced in Russia. The text – which will now have to be examined by the upper house – was published while President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is on an official visit to Moscow, where he is expected to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Vladimir Putin.
Human rights organizations have denounced the measure as “discriminatory,” warning that it “will increase the vulnerability of LGBTQ+ people” in a Muslim-majority country historically close to Moscow. “The adoption of this law would openly violate Kazakhstan’s human rights commitments,” reads a statement from the International Partnership for Human Rights. Tokayev, who in the past has criticized the spread of “LGBT values imposed by democratic countries,” has repeatedly accused the movements of being used by some NGOs as “cover to interfere in the internal affairs of other states.”
