Kazakhstan

National context

Religious life in Kazakhstan carries the weight of two centuries of external management. Under the Russian Empire, policies of Russification and Orthodox Christianization, followed by seventy years of Soviet state atheism, disrupted the natural development of the country’s religious landscape and left institutions inclined to manage religion through control rather than engagement. Independence in 1991 opened a decade of broad religious freedom; terrorist incidents in the mid-2000s shifted policy back toward security, and the 2011 Law on Religious Activity—among the region’s most restrictive—cut the number of registered communities roughly in half. Religious organizations were liquidated, and believers and atheists alike were prosecuted under extremism provisions.

The direction has since changed. Under President Tokayev the state has articulated a “listening state” approach, with officials increasingly relying on dialogue alongside regulation. Amendments in January 2025 halved administrative fines for religion-related offenses, removed automatic deportation, and introduced official warnings as an alternative sanction. Courts have ruled in favor of a conscientious objector and upheld students’ right to wear the hijab. An assessment delegation visiting in September 2025 found that some people previously prosecuted over their beliefs were no longer prosecuted, and that some unregistered minority communities were meeting openly and without fear. Together, these developments point to a gradual shift from treating religious communities primarily as security concerns toward engaging them as partners in social stability.

Kazakhstan has also assumed an important convening role. The Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions meets in Astana every three years, while Operation Zhusan has repatriated women and children from conflict zones in Syria and Iraq through a model emphasizing rehabilitation, theological counseling, and social reintegration.

What remains unresolved is structural rather than atmospheric. Registration procedures remain uneven in practice, opportunities to strengthen independent Islamic scholarship are limited, and institutional safeguards for transparency, accountability, and consistent implementation of the law continue to require development.

The Panel’s focus in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is where the Panel’s method has the longest record behind it. LYNC’s engagement began in 2013 with a multi-faith delegation that opened direct channels to government officials and religious communities at the same time—an approach of working as builders through sustained engagement rather than criticism from a distance. Over the following decade, that cooperation expanded into long-term partnerships with national institutions, recurring multi-faith roundtables, local multi-faith clubs, religious freedom assessments, and Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy (CCRL) programs. The Eurasia Panel builds on this foundation of trust and institutional cooperation.

Engage. Multi-faith clubs bring religious leaders, government officials, and civil society into the same room at the city level, with the Almaty club serving as the model others follow. More than periodic dialogues, they provide a permanent mechanism for building trust, addressing local concerns, and replacing suspicion with practical cooperation. One evangelical pastor, detained and fined repeatedly for unregistered religious activity before 2019, described the change as now sitting “with everyone else to discuss religious affairs and social issues in our city.”

Research. A religious freedom assessment in September 2025 covered Astana, Almaty, and Shymkent, with separate visits to Aktobe, Atyrau, and Aktau. Rather than documenting conditions alone, the assessment identified practical recommendations for strengthening registration procedures, expanding domestic religious scholarship, improving institutional accountability, and embedding religious freedom within national governance. These findings now inform ongoing policy dialogue in Kazakhstan and contribute to shared learning across the Eurasia Panel.

Equip. In January 2026, a Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy (CCRL) certificate course was delivered to senior law enforcement officials in partnership with Caspian University and the Law Enforcement Academy under the General Prosecutor’s Office. Religious leaders who had completed the program in 2024 joined prosecutors and law enforcement officials in a multi-faith panel to examine the stereotypes each side carries and to explore together the relationship between religious freedom, chaplaincy, and public security.

Across these three areas, Kazakhstan demonstrates that the legacy of securitized governance is not permanent. Through stronger institutions, trusted relationships, and professional education, religious communities can become partners in stability rather than objects of control. The recommendation Kazakhstan brings to the other Panel countries is not simply to expand training, but to build lasting religious freedom infrastructure by embedding CCRL, sustained dialogue, and institutional partnerships within national systems of education and governance.

Both assessments are published in full: Even Stone Can Be Shaped Through Soft Engagement and Crossing the Threshold: Building Religious Freedom Infrastructure.