MNU Treaty Collection: Concept, Structure and Advantages

The report presents the findings of the MNU Treaty Collection research project, aimed at analyzing and systematizing the treaty-making practice of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study was prepared by the Research School for Public and Private International Law at Maqsut Narikbayev University and is based on a comprehensive collection and comparative analysis of data from international and national sources, including official government resources, international databases, and treaty texts.

The analysis reveals that the absence of a unified, comprehensive, and systematized database of international treaties of the Republic of Kazakhstan creates legal uncertainty and increases the risk of errors in legal practice. In particular, a discrepancy was identified between the actual number of international treaties and the figures reflected in official sources: information on 30 bilateral and 46 multilateral treaties was found to be missing from the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The fragmentation of data across multiple sources significantly hampers access to information on the status of treaties, reservations and declarations, as well as the means of expressing consent to be bound.

The study demonstrates that, in order to address these gaps, extensive work was carried out to aggregate and systematize the available data, resulting in a database covering more than 3,000 international treaties of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The database is structured around 18 search criteria, including treaty title, agreement type, parties, means of expressing consent to be bound, dates of signature and entry into force, reservations and declarations, and links to treaty texts.

The research highlights that the MNU Treaty Collection overcomes existing information fragmentation and provides convenient access to reliable, systematized data on Kazakhstan’s international obligations. The database can be effectively used by courts, government authorities, researchers, and students to verify treaty status, analyze treaty practice, and improve the quality of international law application. The report concludes by underscoring the project’s significance as a tool for enhancing transparency in Kazakhstan’s treaty policy and strengthening legal certainty in the field of international obligations.

Language: English