The Ministry of Finance of Kyrgyzstan does not allocate money to create shelters for victims of domestic violence. The Ministry of Labor and Social Development told 24.kg news agency.
According to the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence, victims have the right to placement in a state or municipal shelter for safe temporary stay from January 2018. The stay is free. However, there are still no such shelters.
The Ministry of Social Development planned to open two state crisis centers (in Bishkek and Osh), but the Ministry of Finance refused to finance them.
The law was adopted in 2017 and it took almost three years to approve an authorized body for coordination of work.
«They argued for a long time, were choosing between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development, as a result, the latter was determined as an authorized body. But we have not yet received a government decree. We asked to approve ten staffing positions for the work of this body, but only five were approved,» the ministry added.
«As of today, the procedure for interaction between state bodies on protection against domestic violence, the procedure for providing assistance to victims and the standard correctional program for changing the violent behavior of the person, who committed the violence, have been approved,» the Ministry of Social Development said.
There are 14 non-governmental crisis centers in the republic. There are only two shelters (Sezim in Bishkek and Ak Zhurok in Osh), their work depends on the availability of donor assistance.
Before adoption of the law, its authors calculated how much money would be required to implement the document. The total amount is 25 million soms, including 11.4 million — for crisis centers, 13 million — for shelters and other 916,000 — for correctional programs for perpetrators of domestic violence.
