Gulzada Serzhan is a woman human rights defender, LGBTQI+ activist and a co-founder of Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative “Feminita”. Gulzada Serzhan has a Master's degree in Economic Theory (Russian School of Economics) and is an intern at the University of California, Berkeley.
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.
In 2015, Kazakhstan's government passed a law that imposes burdensome reporting obligations and state regulation on funding of non-governmental organisations through a government-appointed body, therefore subjecting HRD initiatives to further restrictions on their work.
