Dmitry Senyavsky
Dmitry Senyavsky is the head of the Karaganda branch of the Industry Trade Union of Fuel and Energy Complex Workers which represents the interests of miners, including the members of other trade unions, in the individual labor disputes, mainly providing them with assistance in the courts. He has been working as a human rights defender since 2009, focusing on labor rights issues since 2013
Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Kazakhstan are faced with physical and verbal threats, acts of intimidation, judicial harassment, and arbitrary detention; their work continues to be hindered by legislative obstacles that vastly infringe on the rights to freedom of association, assembly, and expression, as well as human rights monitoring and promotion. HRDs who promote the rights of workers and minorities, expose practices of corruption in the government and document human rights violations in Baikonur, a city leased and administrated by the Russian Federation, are particularly targeted. Although Baikonur city is subjected to both Russian and Kazakh jurisdiction, HRDs are often prohibited in their promotion and protection of human rights by repressive Russian laws. Furthermore, in 2015, Kazakhstan's government passed legislation that bans ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientations,’ which drove LGBT rights initiatives and defenders into hiding.
