Azerbaijan, Baku, March 19 / Trend E.Ostapenko /
Roughly 130 ethnic groups live in Kazakhstan. The government is taking active measures to protect these minorities' rights, including their languages, cultures and traditions, U.N. expert on minority issues Gay McDougall wrote in a recent report.
The government and the multinational people of Kazakhstan deserve applause as they have inter-ethnic tolerance in society, the report said. McDougall presented the report to a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva this week.
Simultaneously, the U.N. representative drew attention to the fact that people belonging to minority communities in Kazakhstan do not participate in the country's political life. The report notes that minorities are rarely appointed to senior positions in government even in areas where they live compactly.
McDougall wrote in his report that after independence, the country successfully adopted a policy to promote the Kazakh language and ethnic identity, which is implemented in a balanced and progressive way.
"She added that for many non-Kazakhs, as for the Slavs and non-Slavs, the preservation of the use of the Russian language through a constitutional guarantee, on par with the state language, is considered as a key factor in Kazakhstan's development as a multiethnic state.
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