She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
Linked with the Institute of war and peace … , with ANESMI, with Reporters without borders, and also with Lazzat Ishmukhamedova – Kazakhstan, and with Central Asia, Kazakhstan.
She says: « There should be peace on earth without war, hunger, and cataclysms. Natural calamities are beyond our control, but the others we can prevent! If the women of the world stand up to protect humankind, if they take an active social stand and do not let dictators and rogues rule, there would not be wars, genocide, crimes against humanity; there would not be hungry and poor people. There is no place for fanatics and terrorists in a thriving world. What we have in real life is quite the opposite. Cruelty, thirst for power and greed rule the world. Egotism and violation of moral principles by some state leaders bring their people to poverty, aggression and envy. They breed in their people the desire to hate and kill others. This is against human nature. » (Read here about her).
Rozlana Taukina – Kazakhstan
She is working for 3 associations:
– the Institute for War and Peace Problems;
– for the Central Asia Independent Mass Media Association;
– and for the group ‘Reporters without Borders’.
Rozlana Taukina is a journalist and human rights activist working in the tough climate of economic collapse and political crisis in a Kazakhstan recently freed after decades of authoritarian rule. A well-known face in the national news media and correspondent for Reporters without Borders, Rozlana has dedicated her career – at much personal risk – to defending the mass media and individual journalists threatened with censure and repression.
Rozlana Taukina was born in Uralsk in Kazakhstan in 1959 and began her journalistic career by working as an editor for local newspapers and television. She also participated in a youth editorial body for Moscow TV.
Her work as a public activist began in 1991 when she began organizing protest and solidarity meetings to protect freedom of speech in Kazakhstan and support independent journalists who were being harassed and censured by government authorities. These protests began to extend into the larger realm of political and social life in Kazakhstan where she courageously defended the rights of the Kazakh people to free information and fair Presidential and Parliamentary elections. She opened the first independent newspaper in Kazakhstan, Maximum, and then the first independent broadcasting company which was closed by Kazakh authorities in 1997 for criticizing the Government. If the authorities had not shut it down, the television and radio company she started would have been the most popular and distinguished in Kazakhstan.
She was invited to host the radio program « Caravan » and was later dismissed for inviting opposition leaders onto the show. She led public protests and actions in Kazakhstan to free the journalist Sergey Duvanov and helped his family cope with his incarceration. She organized a public condemnation in Kazakhstan when the Kazakh police killed the daughter of a female journalist, Lira Beysaitova.
Rozlana has written extensively on policy questions and the problems of bringing democracy to Kazakhstan. A gifted public speaker, she also organizes seminars and round tables on democracy and gives her considerable energy and leadership to several organizations fighting for freedom and democracy in her country.
In 1999 she became co-chairperson of the Forum of Democratic Forces in Kazakhstan. In 2000, she became Director of the Institute for War and Peace Problems in Kazakhstan. She is also President of the Kazakh foundation Journalists in Danger and the Central Asia Independent Mass Media Association and a member of the Central Asian Network for Conflict Prevention concerned with violations of journalists’ rights in the region.
Rozlana is also aware that the social and political development of her country is impossible without the help of international organizations, thus, in 1998 she was elected to the board of directors of the Soros Foundation and in 2001 she became the Kazakhstan correspondent for the international NGO Reporters without Borders. There is a saying in Almaty that if Rozlana were connected to a power station, she could generate and transmit enough energy to light the streets for one month.
Her charismatic leadership style, her gift for managing creative people, and her broad global vision led her to be nominated as a candidate to the local Parliament. She has also been elected to the Academy of Journalism of the Republic of Kazakhstan and was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation by the Union of Journalists in the USSR and Russia.
There has been a soccer team of women amateurs in Almaty for twelve years made up of university teachers, businesswomen, doctors, politicians, and housewives. They train every Monday, then have a sauna, tea and share their problems with each other. This winter was particularly cold for training, but Rozlana was superb as a goal keeper!
Rozlana considers the main goal of her life to bring about a better life for her people, and to make the world a peaceful place, full of sunshine, kindness, and the bright smiles of children. She fervently believes that people have to be free citizens fully empowered with the ability to construct their own lives. For her, hope lies with the children and she is doing everything in her power to assure that they will grow up in a freer and happier environment by fighting to overcome the obstacles to a free society typical to the transition period from an authoritarian to a free and democratic society.
In Rozlana’s own words, “My civic duty was fostered from early childhood. I read in archives about numerous repressions against my relatives after the revolution of 1917. My parents took part in World War II. From 1939 till 1946 my father was a field engineer who disarmed thousands of mines. My mother was a radio operator in an air fighters’ corps. They had seen the horrors of war and made me realize the need to struggle for global peace, for a fair and just world. As for my energy, it comes from the sun, from the boundless steppes of Kazakhstan, from the wild poppies in Alatau mountains, because I love my motherland.
“I have been working all my life and cannot imagine my life without work. Lately I earn my living mostly by journalism. I do my public work as a volunteer, for pleasure, as I get no salary as President of an Association or Chairperson of a Foundation. I am happy to do the social work for the sake of my children’s future. I would like to see my two sons, as well as my future grandchildren, healthy and successful.
“There should be peace on earth, without war, hunger or cataclysms. Natural calamities are out of control, but others we can prevent! If the women of the world stand up to protect humankind, if they take an active social stand and do not let dictators and rogues rule, there would not be wars, genocide, crimes against humanity; there would not be hungry and poor people. There is no place for fanatics and terrorists in a thriving world. What we have in real life is quite the opposite. Cruelty, thirst for power and greed rule the world. Egotism and violation of moral principles by some state leaders bring their people to poverty, aggression and envy. They breed in their people the desire to hate and kill others. This is against human nature.”
links:
Central Asia – database, in english and russian;
her article (in 2000?) about elections in Kazakhstan;
National Association of Independent Mass Media of Tajikistan CASCFEN;