OHCHR in Central Asia highly appreciates the efforts of Kyrgyzstan to protect human rights. A letter from the Deputy Regional Representative of the organization in the region Fabio Piana to the Ombudsperson of the country Atyr Abdrakhmatova states.
In an alternative report, the main human rights activist of the Kyrgyz Republic told about violence against women and children in Kyrgyzstan, that cases in the courts are terminated due to reconciliation of the parties, and that pedophiles are not properly punished.
«The minimum number of crimes and offenses involving all types of violence against women and children reaches the courts. The high level of dismissed cases in the courts indicates that the perpetrators of the crime can avoid responsibility, which creates a sense of impunity in society,» she said.
According to her, one of the grounds for exemption from liability is the reconciliation of the parties and the absence of claims from the injured party.
Atyr Abdrakhmatova outlined a critically high level of risk of exposure to violence among children of migrants. According to her, the key reasons are:
- Impunity for violence;
- Irresponsibility of parents;
- Difficult life situation;
- Insufficiency of preventive mechanisms and underreporting of cases of violence on the part of the people around the child;
- Low level of education, limited access to education;
- Child labor and psychological abuse.
Atyr Abdrakhmatova proposes to ensure publicity and inevitability of legal liability for all types of violence against women and children in proportion to the committed act in order to eradicate violence against women and children and prevent such offenses.
Introduce a system for the protection and restoration of the violated rights of women and children affected by all forms of violence, taking into account digital technologies, including an algorithm for the interaction of state bodies, local governments and non-governmental organizations in the field of protection and rehabilitation of victims. Develop a state program to support labor migrants and their children, including measures to return migrants to their homeland and introduce uniform standards for collecting and processing information on cases of violence against women and children, and its classification.
«Despite the efforts of the state to combat violence against women and children, to tighten responsibility, cases of violence (physical, sexual) against women and children are published daily in the media. The absence of a fact-based approach nullifies the actions taken and the decisions of those responsible. Due to the lack of unified data collection principles and a unified classification on issues of violence against women and children, various government bodies provide different official information. Therefore, it is practically impossible to establish the real number of crimes of violence against women and children,» the Ombudsperson emphasized.
She noted that it is impossible to assess the level of prevalence and scale of violence. There is also no way to develop precise, targeted and effective measures to eradicate all types of violence. Citizens do not trust law enforcement agencies and courts.
On March 31, the head of the Bishkek police department, Azamat Nogoibaev, commented on sexual crimes against minors live on Facebook. He stated that missing children voluntarily engage in sexual contact.
According to a police official, «there are facts when missing girls find themselves in such a situation: they get to know people, have sex with them voluntarily, and then incidents occur.»
The Internal Investigation Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began an investigation based on his statements.
