Although religious minorities have been generally free to operate in Kazakhstan, in July 2005 President Nazarbaev signed 'amendments to laws relating to national security' making it compulsory to register all religious communities and banning the activities of all religious organizations that have not been registered. Attempts in 2006 to confiscate Hare Krishna devotees' property near Almaty could be justified under the new amendment.

On the positive side, Kazakhstan ratified two major human rights conventions in January 2006, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. If implemented in domestic law, these could offer greater human rights protection for minority groups.

By 2006, the number of ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan appears to have fallen to about 200,000. While traditionally concentrated in the Akmola, Kostanai and North Kazakhstan areas, their remaining numbers now predominantly live in central Karaganda, and in the north and the east of Kazakhstan. The villages where Germans were mainly concentrated and the German language was used most frequently have been taken over by ethnic Kazakhs as their former inhabitants have mostly migrated en masse.

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