Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Zhovtis Евгений Александрович Жовтис (born 17 August 1955) is a Kazakhstan human rights activist and director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law. After graduating as a mining engineer, he became vice president of the Independent Trade Union of Kazakhstan and represented the interests of miners, who worked under often inhumane conditions. He also became a member of the executive board of the Civic Organisation Memorial, working for public awareness of human rights and democratic values under the repressive conditions in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

and independence for Kazakhstan in 1991, Zhovtis continued working for human rights and qualified as a lawyer to help that work. In 1992, with the support of the

Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (UCSJ) is a non-governmental organization that reports on the human rights conditions in countries throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, exposing hate crimes and assisting communities in ...

, he founded the Kazakhstan American Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law. This later became an independent organisation under its present name.

Personal life

Zhovtis is married, with a daughter and a son.

Conviction

While driving near

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

in late July 2009, the car Zhovtis was driving accidentally hit and killed a pedestrian. On 3 September 2009 Zhovtis was found guilty and sentenced to four years' imprisonment on charges of manslaughter. Local and international human rights activists say the trial was flawed and used by the authorities as a convenient way to imprison him. After two and a half years in prison, Zhovtis was granted amnesty on 17 February 2012.

References

RFE articleUS mission to OSCE statement on Zhovtis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhovtis, Evgeniy 1955 births Living people Kazakhstani human rights activists Trade unionists Kazakhstani people convicted of manslaughter Kazakhstani prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Kazakhstan