The First 100 Days of the Kazakh OSCE Chairmanship

Active in journalism since 1995, Vyacheslav Abramov has worked as an associate editor; a parliament and special-issues correspondent; the director of the press center at news service "Interfax-Kazakhstan;" an informational editor for Kazakhstan Today news service; a member of the television news team for "Tan;" and a news and music anchor for the radio-stations "Retro," "Khabar," and "Kazakh Radio."

Abramov has also worked in the following nongovernmental organizations: "Center for Conflict Management" (Almaty); "The Children's Defense Center" (Almaty); and the "Directors' Association of Astana Enterprise Schools" (Astana). Since January 2000, he has led more than 80 trainings on effective media cooperation, social psychology and the business sphere, conflict prevention and resolution, and strategic planning.

He has worked at MediaNet since 2006, acting as its director since June 2009. Since 2007, he's been the editor-in-chief of the Internet human rights portal Voice of Freedom–Central Asia.

Anastasia Knauss works as a deputy director of Kostanay affiliate office at the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights. She is from Kostanay, in Northern Kazakhstan, has a bachelor's degree of law from the Kazakhstan Institute of Law and International Relations.

Knauss was previously involved as a volunteer at the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan. Since 2006 she has taken part in more than ten human rights projects including such topics as rights to freedom from torture, fair trial, conscience and religion, and freedom of speech. In 2008 she took part in presenting the Alternative Report to the UN Committee against Torture. Knauss also chairs the Public Monitoring Commission to observe the human rights situation in penitentiary institutions in Kostanay oblast.

Yevgeniya Plakhina is a staff correspondent for the Kazakh "Respublika" newspaper. She primarily covers issues of medium and small businesses and human rights. In March 2009 Plakhina started a campaign, "For Free Internet," against the restrictive law on information and communication networks, along with her colleague Irina Mednikova.

She graduated from the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research with a bachelor's degree in international journalism (with honors). While studying she worked as an English-language translator at the Mining Metallurgical Concern "Kazakhaltyn" and BBC Monitoring. She also worked as a PR consultant on a project of the European Commission, "Institutional Strengthening of the Judicial Academy."