Digital Library for Human Rights Related Legal Documents hrc.nabrk.kz

1. Digital Library for Human Rights Related Legal Documentshttp://hrc.nabrk.kz Leila Baishina Human Rights Projects Coordinator, UNDP Kazakhstan

2. Description of the Problem • Limited access to legal information In Kazakhstan, particularly to the legislative data a base. • As a consequence, large parts of the population lack basic information on their rights. • Awareness raising on human rights was identified as a priority goal for the Human Rights Project of UNDP in Kazakhstan, going in line with the national priority on creation of National Human Rights Action Plan. • Necessity of finding efficient and cost effective way of reaching majority of vulnerable groups of population

3. Objectives • Provide a sustainable access for the whole population to basic human rights documents in a user friendly way • Provide answers to frequently asked human rights related questions with particular focus on the most vulnerable groups of the society • Familiarize the rural population with the measures and procedures of human rights protection that exist in their country • Not limiting access to information provided by using only one common language, but provide information in the state and Russian Languages

4. Strategy • Identify, with the help from different Human Rights related actors in the country (Kazakh HR Commission, Parliament, NGOs, several UN agencies), which documents are to be made available • Select local experts and provide trainings • Raise awareness about the new opportunity at a big launching event with government presence and media coverage • Ensure sustainability and updating of the new tool

5. Innovative Aspects • Use of ICT tool and free software as a main instrument of providing open public domain • Awareness raising and human rights education available to vulnerable groups of population in a user friendly version of the digital library in two mainly spoken languages of the country • With a reasonable one time investment and low maintenance costs, a large number of documents can be consulted in a user friendly way and free of charge on the web or on a computer in any municipal library and via libraries network reaching rural population of the vast country. • Effective partnership of the UNDP, UNESCO, governmental partners, NGO’s and other local actors involved into the project

6. Activities • The Greenstone Digital Library free software, provided by UNESCO allows getting access to the digital library on the Human Rights Commission-s website from any computer with access to internet or without such access. Information about product is available by http://www.greenstone.org • More than 65 subcategories structured and user friendly way on the most frequent HR related questions were identified (prison, pension, social benefits, marriage, children etc). A task group that consisted of experts from the commission and the parliament chose, with help from NGOs and UN agencies, the relevant legal texts that provide answers to the most pressing questions under these categories in both Russian and Kazakh language. • The documents were uploaded in the digital library. With the help of employees of the Kazakh National Academic Library who were preliminarily trained by UNESCO and UNDP experts, librarians of 14 regions of the country were trained on the program to support users with little or none IT education • At a big launching event with government presence and media coverage, the website and the digital library was introduced. The Human Rights Digital Library is operational now and accessible via the following web address: http://hrc.nabrk.kz

7. Partnerships • joint program with government institutions, UNDP and UNESCO which made use of each participant’s specific knowledge and strengths: • UNESCO: familiarity with digital library software and IT support • HR Commission: national legislation, gov. support to the project, publicity; Parliament: national legislation; Nat. Acad. Library: umbrella for the country’s municipal libraries • UNDP: co-ordination, planning, close cooperation with the governmental partners, NGO’s and and international agencies

8. Results • The digital library created in Kazakh and Russian Languages in a user friendly version provides free access for population to legal data base, containing more than 1000 legal documents mostly related to human rights issues. • The library has a particular focus on rural population and the vulnerable groups. Through the national legislation people could get answer which law or provision is applicable if human rights are violated in this area. There are lawyers- comments answering to frequently asked questions. • The digital library serves as an effective awareness raising and educational tool on human rights. • The Digital Library of the Human Rights Commission is now disseminated over the territory of Kazakhstan through the extensive net of state libraries spread all over the country. These libraries are being equipped with computers and internet access and the librarian focal points have been trained in program and are able to provide support to those citizens with no or little IT skills. Thus, we make sure that the most vulnerable groups of the population, elderly and poorly educated people will benefit from the digital library. A valuable feedback already came from the regional libraries.

9. Problems Encountered • Technical problem: There exist different kinds of formatting for the specific letters of the Kazakh alphabet that are all supported by different software. A lot of consulting and extra work was required to harmonize those formats • Limited financial and human recourses • Follow up trainings and monitoring activities from the side of UNDP and UNESCO are very limited to due to luck of financial recourses

10. Sustainability • The daily counter installed in the National Academic Library that shows various ICT visitors trends, including countries visited, daily trends etc. The effective monitoring mechanism especially of the Offline version is going to take place. • The communication task force within the National Academic library has been set up to receive information from the rural sites. • The large session of the National Human Rights Commission provided recommendations to the • Prime Ministers Office to establish a coordination mechanism among the three long term stakeholders (Commission, Nat. Library and Parliament) to ensure periodic update and maintenance of the digital library content. • The relevant provision of the Office of the Prime Minister has been issued.

11. Replicability in Other Country Context • IT tools as the most efficient way to disseminate informationin the vast and sparsely populated country, like Kazakhstan • The digital library serves as an effective awareness raising and educational tool on human rights • Since it is the computer based technology and thus, access to computers must be provided to all of the population, there must exist or be put in place a network of accessible computers that is spread all over the country (in Kazakhstan: municipal libraries) http://hrc.nabrk.kz