Bishkek, 3 June 2022 – Today the Gender Council on the Rights of Women, Children and Gender Equality under the Speaker of the Parliament and the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative organized a public discussion on the draft law of the Kyrgyz Republic  “On Amendments of Certain Legislative Acts of the Kyrgyz Republic in the Field of Security and Protection against Domestic Violence” with a focus on curbing violence against women and girls, a pervasive problem requiring changes in the country’s legislation.

“Stakeholders here today are acting on our shared commitment to end the violence and fear that threaten the health and dignity of Kyrgyzstan’s women and girls who suffer violence. This is about protecting everyone's right to be safe in their home and ending impunity for perpetrators, in Kyrgyzstan and all other countries” – said Louise Chamberlain, UNDP Resident Representative in Kyrgyzstan, with reference to the global commitment of Kyrgyzstan and other countries to end all forms of violence against women, as part of the global SDG and Human Rights frameworks and the global campaign of the Secretary General "UNiTE to End Violence against Women".

At the round table, experts shared their monitoring of women victims of violence. It states that 95.2% of the victims of violence are women, of which 33% are aged 31-40 and 32% are women under 30. It was noted that many of the affected families include young children, who are growing up traumatized by witnessing violence among close family members.

Dinara Ashimova, Member of Parliament and initiator of changes to the legislation, said that one of the reasons why she took up the bill was the fact that a woman does not have government support and is under pressure from society, manipulation by relatives, and often lacks financial opportunities. “I have been working with violence issues for many years, I see that law enforcement agencies are responding, but now further state support for women affected by violence is required.”

The experts noted that the current law does not provide proper protection of survivors against perpetrators, as it allows reconciliation and probation for serious sexual offences and only protects victims of violence from family members. It was also noted that the protection orders are not properly implemented and that the Law contains inconsistency with the Convention on the Rights of the Child in terms of taking measures to protect all children, regardless of age.

The recommendations, developed with UNDP technical support to a comprehensive analysis of the new criminal legislation adopted in November 2021, have already informed the current bill with a view to strengthen the protection and safety of survivors. The analysis also produced recommendations aimed at harmonizing the new codes with the legislation in matters in the field of protection and defense against domestic violence.

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