Kyrgyzstani sues state for 10 million soms for discrimination

17:33, 18 марта 2021, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Darya PODOLSKAYA

Representatives of Roza Gorbayeva filed a claim for 10 million soms with the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek. The lawsuit was filed on the basis of recognition of the fact of discrimination by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Spravedlivost (Justice) human rights organization of Jalal-Abad city reported.

The 51-year-old Roza Gorbayeva became the first Kyrgyz woman who filed a complaint with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and her case was the first in the Kyrgyz Republic on which the committee delivered a decision.

She spent several years in temporary detention facilities for a crime, which, according to her, she did not commit, and was forced to criminate herself under severe torture. For more than three years, while the investigation and trials were underway, she was kept in temporary detention facilities, although, according to the law, the term of detention in a temporary detention facility should not exceed 48 hours. For three years, Gorbayeva was kept in six temporary detention centers: in Mailu-Suu, Tash-Kumyr, Jalal-Abad, Bazar-Korgon, Nooken (Jalal-Abad region) and Batken (Batken region).

In her complaint, Gorbayeva stated that she was discriminated because of her gender in temporary detention facilities, and cited the facts.

In particular, the staff of the temporary detention centers consisted only of men, therefore, she was also searched by men, although by law the body search must be carried out by an officer of the same gender as the accused. The shower and toilet were in a visible place for the male warders — the woman could not go to the shower and toilet in private. In some detention centers, a bucket replaced the toilet, which stood one and a half meters from the sleeping places.

There was no dining table in some cells, so the woman had to eat and drink on the bed or right on the floor, next to the closestool. Huge rats crawled out of the toilet.

According to the Jalal-Abad human rights organization Spravedlivost, the detention of Gorbayeva in these detention centers humiliated her human dignity, was tantamount to cruel inhuman treatment and was discriminatory.