A/HRC/43/46/Add.1 demonstrates leadership, which is sorely absent on this issue in many other States. Kazakhstan has been engaged in a continuous dialogue at all levels of Government aimed at finding the optimum approach to addressing the challenges related to returning its foreign fighters and their families. Kazakhstan is also deeply and positively engaged on these issues at the international level, demonstrating how to optimize partnerships with other States and international entities in tracing, identifying and delivering the practical means to extract individuals from territories under the control of non-State actors and ensure their safe return to their countries of nationality. The Special Rapporteur reaffirms that this approach is not only in line with the human rights obligations of Kazakhstan, but also that its efforts are extensive, sustained and consistent considering its long-term security interests. 56. The Special Rapporteur notes that returnees are subject to a rigorous security process to establish potential criminal culpability. Several of those returned, including at least five women, have been arrested and transferred to law enforcement authorities. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to ensure that security measures preserve the legal rights of returnees by conforming to national and international law and enabling fair trials for those charged with committing crimes. During her visit to the “adaptation centre” in Aktau, in which 231 women and children had arrived a week earlier, she had the opportunity to meet with several returnees through the system of established “rehabilitation centres”, which provide legal and other advice to ensure the normalization of the status of such women and their children. She notes and welcomes the emphasis on integration and rehabilitation in the efforts of the Government and describes the work being done by such centres as humanitarian and supportive in nature, and necessary to enable the practical integration into society of women and children who have travelled to, or been born in, conflict zones overseas. 57. The Special Rapporteur regrets, however, the overemphasis on religious normalization in such programming and stresses, in accordance with the overall findings of the present report, that the right to freedom of religious belief should be firmly protected by the Government. She voices unease at theological criteria being used as a substitute for a broader and scientifically based understanding of rehabilitation. She was notably struck that for key personnel in these centres, successful deradicalization was measured by the absence of religious garments and the length of women’s clothing. She also notes the dangers of ethical compromise for professionals providing medical, social and educational services to this group being elided into a security outpost for the State, thereby compromising the provision of fundamental economic and social rights to highly vulnerable individuals. 37 While acknowledging the security concerns raised by the return of individuals who may have committed serious crimes under international law, the Special Rapporteur is also concerned at the lack of transparency surrounding both the legal basis for the detention of these women and children, who were unable to meet or have contact with their families for one month while in the camp in Aktau, as well as the clear presence of the security services and their role in interrogating detainees. Ambiguity about such clear and basic human rights issues is not necessary. She urges the Government to show more transparency, particularly as many aspects of its work in this area are to be lauded. III. Conclusions and recommendations 58. Since independence, Kazakhstan has gained prominence in the global peace and security agenda, including in countering terrorism. It has shown leadership in repatriating its citizens from conflict zones in which terrorist groups are active. However, parallel developments have yet to be replicated at the national level as the counter-terrorism and extremism apparatus of Kazakhstan, in both its operational and legal aspects, is in need of a substantial overhaul in order for it to be brought into line with international law. An overly bloated security sector, numerous overlapping layers of legislation and bodies that exist primarily to provide the appearance of a system based on the rule of law and a professed adherence to the principle of equality that fails in practice to take into account the cross-cutting vulnerabilities of various groups and segments of the population, combined with dystopian measures to prevent 37 See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 3 (1990) on the nature of States parties’ obligations. 17