Anis H. Bajrektarevic is a Professor and a Chairperson for International Law and Global

MODERNDIPLOMACY.EU

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Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court on 26 May
2015 struck down the homophobic (anti-gay)
draft legislation that prohibited the “propa-
ganda of nontraditional sexual orientation” sim-
ilar to the bill that Russia passed in 2013 and the
bill that Kyrgyzstan is currently trying to pass.
The law formally called, “On Protecting Children
from Information Harmful to their Health and
Development” was introduced in February
2015. The text of the law was never made pub-
lic. The Kazakh Court’s decision on the discrim-
inatory law set a precedent and shows the
strength of its national-level institutions. Some
observers see Kazakhstan’s striking down of the
law as a reputation management and some see
the actions of the Supreme Council as a step to
reaching democratic reforms.
fOREIgN POLICY
Kazakhstan mainly deals in agreements per-
taining to oil and gas resources with Russia,
China, the U.S., and the European Union (EU)
being its main trade partners. The country tries
to increase independence and to play Russia,
China and the U.S. off each other as to maximize
its geopolitical benefits. This embodies
Nazarbayev’s multi-vector foreign policy which
allows Kazakhstan to maintain ties with Russia
while pursuing its interests outside of its imme-
diate geographic area and with other regional
and world superpowers. 
Under this foreign policy, Kazakhstan has made
great strides in developing its political, eco-
nomic, and security relationships with other na-
tions and Western-oriented institutions and
organizations.
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Kazakhstan has dragged itself slowly closer to
the West by holding the chairmanship of the
OSCE in 2010, one of the few Former Soviet Re-
publics to do so. Kazakhstan is also developing
relations with members of the regional organi-
zations it belongs to outside of these frame-
works to ensure cooperation with China
without Russian interference. Kazakhstan has
been active with NATO in military training (see
Strategic perspectives
).