Assessing the Extent of Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: Concluding Observations on Kazakhstan

Abstract

This Master’s thesis assesses the extent of Kazakhstan’s implementation of the recommendations issued by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) in relation to the state party’s sixth periodic report, covering the period from 2019 to 2025. While shadow reports raise concerns across multiple domains, this thesis focuses on two thematic clusters that are consistently identified as priority areas: gender-based violence and participation in political and public life. The thesis tests the hypothesis that Kazakhstan’s compliance with the CEDAW Committee’s 2019 Concluding Observations demonstrates a strategic emphasis on de jure legal measures over institutional and practical de facto implementation, producing predominantly formal rather than substantive compliance across both issue areas. Despite the existence of international and regional assessments of Kazakhstan’s engagement with the CEDAW Committee’s periodic reporting procedure, the scholarly literature remains remarkably underdeveloped in one crucial respect: there is no systematic analysis of how this supervisory mechanism operates in concreto within the domestic legal order, nor of the key institutional and practical barriers that impede full and effective implementation of the Committee’s recommendations. Addressing this gap is essential both for advancing academic debates on the localisation and internalisation of international human rights norms in semi-authoritarian legal systems, and for informing the design of more effective national implementation mechanisms in the field of gender equality. Methodologically, the thesis applies a qualitative socio-legal research design combining systematic document analysis and semi-structured expert interviews including practicing legal professionals, an international gender expert and women’s rights activists engaged in CEDAW monitoring. Documentary sources include Kazakhstan’s fifth and sixth periodic reports, the CEDAW 2019 Concluding Observations, shadow reports and other relevant documents produced by non-governmental organisations and international bodies. Implementation is analysed through a three-level framework: legal, institutional and practical, distinguishing de jure commitments, enforcement arrangements and de facto outcomes. The hypothesis is partially supported. The findings confirm a strong emphasis on de jure legal and policy measures, particularly where CEDAW recommendations can be translated into codifiable and reportable outputs, while practical de facto implementation remains the weakest layer. At the same time, Kazakhstan has expanded an extensive institutional infrastructure, suggesting that the core asymmetry lies less in the absence of institutionalisation than in limited conversion capacity: institutional expansion and measurable activity are more visible than stable and consistent de facto outcomes. Implementation is therefore best characterised as predominantly partial compliance with uneven practical effectiveness, sustained by selective compliance, fragmented coordination and accountability, weak enforceability of protective tools, informal institutional gatekeeping and constrained domestic mobilisation that keeps compliance strongest in reportable legal/policy changes and institutional arrangements, and weakest in consistent enforceability and practical outcomes.