The Kazakhstan Bar has made significant progress in its development

Last year, our project introduced readers to the "New Kazakhstan – new Bar" Concept, which outlined the plan of the Kazakh Bar for 2022-2025. The plan aimed, inter alia, to strengthen the association's role and enhance the procedural status of attorneys.

Recently, a draft Law "On amendments and additions to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on improving procedural legislation, advocacy and legal assistance, out-of-court settlements and litigation" was submitted to the lower chamber of the Parliament of Kazakhstan.

It is important to note that the bill includes provisions that the Republican Bar Association developed as part of the implementation of the Concept. These progressive amendments include granting attorneys access to limited-access information upon request, replacing attorneys' access to state secrets with a hand note attached to the case file, providing advance notification to attorneys of all procedural actions, introducing a new article in the Criminal Procedure Code (Article 256-1) that specifies the conduct of searches, inspections, and seizures concerning attorneys, establishing the possibility of holding special state and law enforcement bodies administratively responsible for obstructing attorneys' activities, allowing attorneys to publish their clients' positions on cases in the media without prosecutor's consent, permitting attorneys to refute false information about their clients, and ensuring unhindered use of technical means by attorneys in penitentiary institutions and premises of pre-trial investigation bodies, among others.

However, it should be noted that the draft law does not include some proposals sought by the Bar of Kazakhstan, such as the prohibition of criminal or administrative prosecution of attorneys in connection with the provision of legal assistance, including for public statements, or providing state protection for the life, health, honor, dignity, and property of attorneys and their family members.