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Kyrgyzstan - Second periodic reports of States parties [2002] UNCEDAWSPR 17; CEDAW/C/KGZ/2 (9 October 2002)


Committee on the Elimination of

Discrimination against Women

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under

Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All

Forms of Discrimination against Women

Second periodic reports of States parties

* The present document is being issued without formal editing.

For the initial report submitted by the Government of Kyrgyzstan, see CEDAW/C/KGZ/1, which was considered by the Committee at its twentieth session.

Kyrgyzstan*

List of abbreviations

“Araket” national programme for the eradication of poverty

“Ayalzat” national programme for the advancement of women

“Bilim” national educational development programme

CDF Comprehensive Development Framework

CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

CIS Commonwealth of Independent States

DFID Department for International Development (UK)

“Emgek” national labour market and employment programme

FINCA-Kyrgyzstan Fund for international community assistance in Kyrgyzstan

GDP gross domestic product

GMLC guaranteed minimum level of consumption

HIV/AIDS human immunodeficiency virus/ acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

HIVOS Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries

ICF “Meerim” International Charitable Foundation “Meerim”

ILO International Labour Organization

IOM International Organization for Migration

KAFC Kyrgyz Agricultural Finance Corporation

KOORT Kyrgyz public educational radio and television broadcasting company

KRSU Kyrgyz - Russian (Slavonic) University

“Manas” State health care programme

NGO non-governmental organization

NSPA National Poverty Reduction Strategy

OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

“Skilled staff for the 21st century”

national programme for the training of skilled personnel

SOS Kinderdorf SOS Children’s Villages of Kyrgyzstan

STD sexually transmitted disease

UN United Nations

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNFPA United Nations Population Fund

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women

USA United States of America

USsAID United States Agency for International Development

WB World Bank

WHO World Health Organization

Introduction

The present document is the second periodic report of the Kyrgyz Republic on measures for implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and covers the period from 1999 to 2002. It has been prepared on the basis of the general guidelines for the preparation of reports by States parties as set out in document CEDAW/C/7/Rev.3. The report uses information from State executive and administrative bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic responsible for issues relating to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and from social and non-governmental organizations concerned with the said issues. The report contains responses to the comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women presented in document CEDAW/C/1999/I/L.1/Add.3.

Part I of the report gives general information about the Kyrgyz Republic, its population, political system and system of legislative bodies for protecting human rights and about efforts undertaken in the Republic to disseminate information on human rights.

Part II provides information, article by article, on changes which have occurred in the reporting period in legislative, administrative and other measures taken by Kyrgyzstan to fulfil its obligations under the Convention and on the progress made, obstacles encountered and measures planned for the further implementation of the Convention.

The Kyrgyz Republic acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 10 February 1997. The first periodic report on implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was prepared by Kyrgyzstan in January 1999. At a meeting on 28 February 2002 of the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, a special commission made up of representatives of State organs and non-governmental organizations was established in order to prepare the second periodic report. The completed draft report was sent to ministries, administrative departments and non-governmental organizations for discussion, and their remarks and wishes were taken into account in the preparation of the final version of the report.

Part I. General Information

А. Land and people (General gender characteristics)

The Kyrgyz Republic is a new independent state in Central Asia. It has common borders with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China and covers an area of about 199,945 square kilometres, 90 per cent of which is taken up by the Pamir-Altai and Tien Shan mountain ranges. The Republic has seven regions (oblasts), 41 districts and 20 cities. Its capital is Bishkek.

The population of the Kyrgyz Republic is 4,946,000, of whom one third live in towns and cities and two thirds in rural areas. There are 2.5 million women, who make up 50.6 per cent of the total population.

Based on overall statistics, the average woman in Kyrgyzstan is an ethnic Kyrgyz aged 27 years, lives in a rural area, has two children and is educated.

The average life expectancy is 64.9 years for men and 72.4 years for women. The difference of 7.5 years is attributable to differences in the death rates of the sexes. The principal losses determining this difference are connected with the higher rate of deaths among men as a result of accidents, poisoning, injuries and diseases of the circulatory system.

Labour and employment

• In 2001, the average monthly wage of women was 67.6 per cent of the average monthly wage of men. Differences in wage levels were due to the fact that work in “women’s” sectors of the economy is less well paid than in sectors where men work.

• The average level of women’s pensions is 86 per cent of the average level of men’s pensions.

• In the period from 1996 to 2000, the level of economic activity fell by 4.9 per cent among women and by 1.9 per cent among men.

• The economic downturn led to a significant reduction in demand for labour. The crisis affected most severely those sectors of the economy employing predominantly women. Over the period from 1989 to 1999, the number of jobs in the organized sector of the economy held by men fell by a 80 per cent, while the number of jobs held by women fell by 120 per cent.

• Unemployment among women is rising steadily. 53.3 per cent of the total number of unemployed citizens are women, and of these unemployed women, 15,000 (45 per cent) live in rural areas. In order to support unemployed women, a method of promoting self-employment though a system of credits and microcredits has been widely adopted in the Republic.

• About 18 per cent of people who own their own businesses are women, and in rural areas women make up 15 per cent of owners of peasant holdings. Moreover, about 18 per cent of partial families comprise women with or without children.

• Women devote on average four to five hours per day to housekeeping, spending more than 20 per cent of the total time available in a day, while the figure for men does not exceed five per cent and amounts to less than one hour.

• Whereas in 1990 the proportion of the day spent by women of working age on paid and unpaid work stood at 30 per cent and 21 per cent in urban areas and at 25 per cent and 27 per cent in rural areas respectively, by 2000 this proportion had come to stand at 27 per cent and 25 per cent in urban areas and 11 per cent and 32 per cent in rural areas. Among non-working women, the time spent on housekeeping is double that spent by working women.

• In 2001, the early lifting of the moratorium on the buying and selling of land in practice signalled the beginning of a market for land. Shares of land have been allotted to about 2,462,000 individuals, 50.8 per cent of whom are women. In the distribution of this strategic resource, women legally have equal rights with men to own land and private property. In practice, however, the traditional stereotypes which exist restrict the legal capacity of women in this matter.

Women in decision-making processes

• Women, who make up 52 per cent of the electorate, make up only 6.7 per cent of deputies in the Zhogorku Kenesh (Parliament) of the Kyrgyz Republic. The “pyramid” trend continues, with women accounting for 12 per cent of council representatives at the regional level, 13 per cent at the district and municipal level and 16 per cent at the rural level.

• In 2001, only two of the 12 Ministers in Kyrgyzstan were women; there were no women in regional governor posts and only one district administration was headed by a woman; of the 455 heads of aiyl okmotu, only 21 were women.

• According to 2001 data, women in senior government posts accounted for 14.7 per cent of the heads of authorities and administrative bodies and 24.7 per cent of the heads of organizational subdivisions, departments and administrations.

Education

• On the whole, there are no significant differences between the educational levels of men and women, though in cities women are more highly educated than men: the proportion of women with a higher education stands at 17.5 per cent compared with 15.6 per cent of men and the proportions with a specialized secondary education are 16.9 per cent and 9.9 per cent respectively.

Health Care

• In 2001, the maternal mortality rate stood at 49.9 per 100,000 births and the infant mortality rate at 21.6. The pattern of maternal mortality shows that women dying during pregnancy, childbirth and recovery constitute a significant percentage.

• Compared with 1994, the number of cases of women with tuberculosis had doubled, the number with certain types of venereal disease had increased five-fold and the number with anaemia during pregnancy was 50 per cent higher.

• Men account for 67 per cent of people suffering from active tuberculosis and 86.5 per cent of people suffering from alcohol dependency. According to data valid on 15 April 2002, 173 men and 16 women were infected with HIV.

Violence against women

• According to the results of a sociological survey, the form of violence to which women are most frequently subjected is psychological violence, with physical violence being the second most widely encountered form, followed by sexual harassment, one of the forms of sexual violence, in third place.

• 78.9 per cent of women who suffered from violence refused to go to law-enforcement agencies for help. Of those who did, only 6.6 per cent were satisfied with the actions of the police, 34.1 per cent were dissatisfied and 45.9 per cent found difficulty in replying.

• According to information from an independent study, each year about 4,000 women in Kyrgyzstan become victims of human trafficking. Promising high earnings, “intermediary” companies illegally export women (generally young and even under-age girls) to other countries, where they are subjected to sexual exploitation.

• At the present time, there are more than 10 services providing assistance to women who have suffered from violence in the form of crisis centres and shelters. Over the period from 1997 to 2000, about 30,000 women who had undergone various forms of violence approached them for help.

Crime

• Among people convicted of having committed a crime, the number of women rose from 1,055 in 1994 to 2,084 in 2001. Theft, fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement of entrusted property and crimes connected with the illegal use of drugs account for 52.7 per cent of the total number of crimes committed by women. In 2000, men committed 89.7 per cent of all types of crime and accounted for 89 per cent of all persons convicted.

Sources: Compilations of gender-disaggregated statistics “Men and women of the Kyrgyz Republic”, Bishkek, 1999, 2000, 2001.

B. General political structure

The Kyrgyz Republic is a sovereign, unitary, democratic Republic and secular State founded on the rule of law. Under the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, State power is based on the principles of:

– the supremacy of the power of the people, represented and safeguarded by a Head of State elected by all the people, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic;

– the division of State authority into the legislative, executive and judicial branches and the coordinated operation and interaction of these branches of authority;

– the accountability of State organs to the people and the exercise of their powers in the interests of the people;

– the demarcation of the functions of State power and of local self-government.

Legislative authority in the Kyrgyz Republic is exercised by the Zhogorku Kenesh, the Republic’s parliament, a representative body elected on the basis of a proportional majority system and comprising two chambers:

– the Legislative Assembly, a standing body of 60 elected deputies, including 15 deputies from political parties, representing the interests of the population as a whole;

– the Assembly of People’s Representatives, with 45 elected deputies representing territorial interests.

The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is the country's highest executive organ. Subordinate to it are the ministries, State committees, administrative departments and local State administration.

Justice in the Kyrgyz Republic is administered solely by the courts. The Office of the Procurator of the Kyrgyz Republic is the body charged with verifying that legislative instruments are observed strictly and uniformly.

In order to create the conditions necessary for a dignified life for all the country’s citizens, systematic reforms of various aspects of life in the Kyrgyz Republic are continuing. From the first days of independence, the State declared itself to be in favour of strengthening democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights.

C. Legislative and institutional safeguarding of human rights in the Kyrgyz Republic

The fundamental principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are reflected quite fully in the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted on 5 May 1993. By constitutionally enshrining basic human rights and freedoms, as well as secondary and tertiary rights, Kyrgyzstan has been able to overcome the primacy of the State over the individual which characterized the Soviet system and to lay the legal and institutional foundations for the reasonable protection and safeguarding of human rights, including the rights of women.

The successive ratification by Kyrgyzstan of over 30 international conventions and protocols on human rights has reinforced the constitutional principle of the precedence of international law over domestic law and facilitated a significant widening in the understanding by State and civil society of the concept of “human rights” in the direction of the human rights of women and the recognition that these rights are inseparably linked with democracy and law and order.

Kyrgyzstan today has political pluralism and freedom of speech, and there are more than 30 fully functional political parties and a large number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan is called NGO country, since their number has now reached 3,019, of which about 150 are women’s NGOs.

In the country’s legislation, the basic rights and interests of women are laid down in the following documents:

• The Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic

• The Labour Code

• The Family Code

• The law on State financial assistance

• The law on protection of the health of the Kyrgyz people

• The Civil Code

• The Criminal Code

Analysis of these shows that discrimination on grounds of sex, religion or ethnic background is prohibited in Kyrgyzstan under the Constitution, that legal protection exists for women in the areas of personal life, labour relations and family and social relations and that there is provision for criminal liability for crimes infringing upon the life, health, freedom and dignity of women.

In 1996, following the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women, special emphasis was placed on highlighting the problems of safeguarding women's rights and on attaining international legal standards in this area. On the initiative of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kyrgyzstan ratified four UN conventions relating directly to women’s issues. These are:

• The Convention on the Political Rights of Women;

• The Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages;

• The Convention on the Nationality of Married Women;

• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

In 2002, the Kyrgyz Republic acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with the adoption of its law on the accession of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Together with the earlier signing of the Supplementary Protocol to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights signifying acceptance of the mechanism of individual complaints, this step widened access to the use of international systems of legal protection for Kyrgyz women.

An important factor in strengthening the position of the women’s movement in Kyrgyzstan has been the possibility of approaching the International Commission on Human Rights and legal protection agencies such as International Women’s Rights Action Watch and Human Rights Watch: Women’s Rights Project, as well as corresponding UN Commissions, with its own proposals for improving the situation of women and for monitoring the activities of national, transnational and international organizations and agencies whose policies may result in an infringement of women’s rights.

The principle of equality in the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic is implemented in the equal right of men and women to participate in elections and referenda, to acquire, change and retain citizenship, to obtain education, medical care, pensions and social benefits, to work independently, to marry and to raise children, to take parental leave to care for children and to enter into defined property and ownership relations, as well as in a whole range of civil, economic and political rights.

At the legislative level, an effective mechanism for observing the principle of equal rights and eliminating overt and covert discrimination on grounds of sex is the gender analysis of legislation, which determines the extent to which international standards and norms guaranteeing gender equality are implemented in domestic legislation. It also provides an opportunity for analyzing the state of affairs as regards the gender sensitivity of legislative and executive bodies and of society as a whole and generally facilitates the development of a policy not only of equal rights and equal responsibilities but – and this is particularly important – of equal opportunities for men and women. By 2000, eight laws of the Kyrgyz Republic concerning women’s rights had undergone gender appraisal, as a result of which experts proposed 84 amendments and recommendations, but to date only one amendment, to the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, has been adopted.

In practice, legislation on the civil, political, socio-economic and cultural rights of women is applied in Kyrgyzstan by the system of courts of general jurisdiction and by the Constitutional Court of the Kyrgyz Republic, but extra-juridical institutions such as the special Human Rights Commission reporting to the Zhogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Human Rights Commission reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic are now gradually appearing, as well as a range of Commissions established by the executive authorities:

• Interdepartmental Commission on Refugees and Other Categories of Migrants reporting to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic;

• Mercy Commission under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic;

• State Commission on Religious Affairs reporting to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

A draft law on a Human Rights Representative (Ombudsman) of the Kyrgyz Republic, which aims to establish in Kyrgyzstan a mechanism for monitoring the observance of human rights, including women’s rights, is currently being passed (according to the draft law, one of the Ombudsman’s deputies will be the Ombudsman for Women’s Affairs).

By Presidential Order No. 96 of 27 February 2001, a National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development was established under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, with a working body, the Secretariat, forming a subdivision of the Administration of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. The former National Gender Policy Council reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, which had operated since 1998, and the State Commission for the Family, Women and Youth reporting to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, which had run since 1996, were abolished. The National Council exercises its powers on the basis of the regulation ratified by Presidential Decree No. 46 of 16 February 2002.

At a special hearing of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in April 1999, Kyrgyzstan was named as being among the first 10 States to have successfully fulfilled commitments entered into at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and incorporated as priorities into “Ayalzat”, the national programme for the advancement of women. A number of appraisals carried out on the winding up of this programme in 2000 made it possible to evaluate its achievements and to confirm that implementation of the programme had facilitated:

• recognition and approval by the international community of the aims and objectives of the women’s movement in Kyrgyzstan.

• the establishment of regional collaboration among women in Central Asia.

• the development of women’s potential in the Republic, the broadening of opportunities for women and the building of a new social partnership between civil society, in the shape of women’s non-governmental organizations, and government bodies at all levels.

This was favoured by such factors as:

• the allocation of funds to the programme from the Republic’s budget;

• the financial assistance of international organizations;

• the presence of a significant number of women’s non-governmental organizations;

• the collaboration of women’s non-governmental organizations with State organs;

• the high intellectual potential and level of education of women in Kyrgyzstan;

• the comparatively weak influence of all religious denominations;

• the existence of gender norms in the culture.

As well as emphasizing the progress achieved in the women’s movement, the appraisals also indicated the problems and obstacles which exist, the most significant of which were:

• the instability of the institutional mechanism, in particular difficulties with its budgetary and staffing provision;

• the practice of partially financing the national programme “Ayalzat”;

• the low level of representation of women at all levels of decision making;

• the lack of development of a system for training women to become senior managers;

• poverty and unemployment, which have a negative effect on the status of women;

• the rise in the incidence of socially transmitted diseases and the deterioration in the state of health of men and women;

• the increase in the number of women involved in the practice of drug trafficking and drug use;

• the rapid spread of HIV infection in the country;

• the increase in the scale of violence and sexual exploitation of women, including of children and juveniles;

• the violent or fraudulent exporting of women and children to other countries for the purposes of sexual or other exploitation;

• the absence of gender perspectives in policies and in the popular consciousness and the failure to understand the nature and importance of gender issues;

• the retention of a patriarchal structure which reinforces the traditionally dependent position of women;

• the lack of a specific methodology for gender analysis and of a mechanism for incorporating gender perspectives into the workings of society;

• the absence of systems of gender monitoring and of assessment of the use of the results of gender monitoring in policy analysis;

• the absence of women’s information networks and communication systems

It is recognized in Kyrgyzstan that the present-day situation with regard to gender development is characterized by new factors that are exerting a growing influence on the situation of both women and men. These include, in particular, the globalization process, which has cultural, political, economic and social consequences and is exerting an influence on the nature of cultural values, on lifestyles and on methods of communication as well as on the maintenance of Kyrgyzstan’s stable development. This is especially important insofar as military conflicts have become a phenomenon of immediate concern for Kyrgyzstan and have brought home the urgency of the issues of protecting women in conflict zones and of their involvement in peace-making processes. The information revolution and technological transformation of recent years have also presented new opportunities for enhancing the position of women, but new problems have emerged as regards access to information resources and self-education.

Taking into account the factors referred to above, and having regard to the achievements and obstacles encountered in implementing the policy for achieving gender equality, a National Plan of Action for Achieving Gender Equality in the Kyrgyz Republic for the Period 2002-2006 has been drawn up and adopted in Kyrgyzstan. This was drawn up by the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development, reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, which enlisted the collaboration of State organs and of the non-governmental and academic sectors.

The National Plan of Action identified the following strategic directions for implementing gender policy in the Kyrgyz Republic:

• Development of an institutional mechanism for achieving gender equality.

• Observance of gender balance at all levels of decision making.

• Gender component of economic development in the areas of labour, employment and social protection.

• Gender aspects in health care.

• Gender parity in education and culture.

• Reduction of all forms of violence against women.

Underlining the commitment of the Kyrgyz Republic to observe fundamental human rights, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic signed a decree on 14 January 2001 on measures to increase the effectiveness with which basic human and civil rights and freedoms in the Kyrgyz Republic are safeguarded. It noted that 2001 is viewed as a new stage in the implementation of State policy in the Kyrgyz Republic which aims to increase the effectiveness with which basic human rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic are safeguarded. At the same time, one of the priority aims of the legislative policy of State authorities for 2001-2002 is to draw up and adopt normative legal instruments with provisions for promoting and developing effective implementation of the civil, political, economic, social, cultural and other rights and freedoms which stem from the dignity intrinsic to the individual.

Presidential decree of 2 January 2002 ratified the National Programme “Human Rights” for the period 2002-2010, the aims of which are:

• to determine the principle lines of development of legislative practice and the practical application of law in Kyrgyzstan which will promote the implementation of human rights, the creation of an integrated uniform system for their protection and the harmonization of national legislation in the area of human rights with international standards;

• to coordinate closely the internal (national) system of human rights protection with systems of international law;

• to promote the establishment and development of forms of legal education in order that every citizen will be aware of his/her rights and freedoms and be able to exercise and protect them;

• to identify the most vulnerable groups of the population, the protection of whose rights must be guaranteed by the State, and to determine ways of optimizing performance in this area.

D. Human rights protection on the basis of international standards

International Conventions concerning women’s rights ratified by the Kyrgyz Republic on 1 January 2001.

1. The ILO Convention (No. 87) concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 31 March 1992)

2. The ILO Convention (No. 98) concerning the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 31 March 1992)

3. The ILO Convention (No. 100) concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 31 March 1992)

4. The ILO Convention (No. 111) concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 31 March 1992)

5. The ILO Convention (No. 122) concerning Employment Policy.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 31 March 1992)

6. The International Covenant on Civil and political Rights.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 12 January 1994)

7. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 12 January 1994)

8. The ILO Convention concerning Migrant Workers.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 12 January 1994)

9. The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 12 January 1994)

10. The ILO Convention concerning Equality of Treatment of Nationals and Non-Nationals in Social Security

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 12 January 1994)

11. The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

12. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

13. The Convention on the Rights of the Child.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 12 January 1994)

14. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 6 March 1996)

15. The Convention on the Political Rights of Women.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 6 March 1996)

16. The Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 6 March 1996)

17. The Convention on the Nationality of Married Women.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 6 March 1996)

18. Convention N 15306 concerning Maternity Protection

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan 6 March 1996)

19. The Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

20. The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 30 October 1995)

21. The Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 30 October 1995)

22. The UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 8 July 1995)

23. The Cosnvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

24. The Slavery Convention, signed at Geneva on 25 September 1926

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

25. The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

26. The International convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

27. The International Convention against Apartheid in Sports.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

28. The ILO Convention (No. 29) concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour.

(Ratified by Kyrgyzstan: 31 March 1996)

29. The Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.

(Ratified by Kyrsgyzstan: 26 July 1996)

In addition, the Kyrgyz Republic has ratified the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and two Additional Protocols of 1997 relating to Combat Participants, Prisoners and Civilians During Armed Conflict.

Sources: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic; Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare; Kyrgyz-American Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law.

E. Human rights information and publicity

Information on human rights is disseminated in Kyrgyzstan through conferences, seminars, round tables, the publication of textbooks, study aids, scientific articles and bulletins and the establishment of courses at schools, universities, etc. Over the period 1999-2001 the most significant events were:

1. National seminar: “Resolution of electoral disputes”. OSCE, 1999, Bishkek.

2. Round table: “On fundamental guarantees of the electoral rights of citizens and on elections and referenda in the Kyrgyz Republic”. KRSU, 1999, Bishkek.

3. Round table: “Gender aspects of government”. KRSU, January 1999.

4. Round table: “Gender analysis of civil legislation in the Kyrgyz Republic”. KRSU, 1999, Bishkek.

5. Round table “The role of NGOs in the formation of an open democratic society and the promotion of the idea of gender equality in the Kyrgyz Republic”. 2000, Bishkek.

6. Round table devoted to discussion of the draft law on gender equality, the draft Family Code and issues connected with the status of women in Kyrgyzstan. 2000, Bishkek.

7. Seminar: “Women’s access to land”. Institute of Regional Studies. 2000, Bishkek.

8. Seminar on the implementation of international humanitarian law in the Kyrgyz Republic. 2000, Bishkek.

9. Seminar on issues of gender equality in Kyrgyzstan. UNFPA, 2000, Bishkek.

10. Seminar: “Legal mechanisms for protecting human rights”. 2000, Issyk-Kul.

11. Round table: “Preventing and combating trafficking in women and children in the Kyrgyz Republic”. IOM, 2001, Bishkek.

12. Forum: “Working together in the name of childhood”, a presentation of the “New generation” programme for implementing the rights of the child in Kyrgyzstan. 2001, Bishkek.

13. Seminar “Women against violence”. US Embassy, Public Relations Department, Institute of Regional Studies, 2001, Bishkek.

14. International preparatory conference: “Women Through Centuries”. 2001, Bishkek.

15. National conference: “The role of women in the development of a democratic Kyrgyzstan”. 2001, Bishkek.

16. Round table: “Circumstances and problems of implementing the rights to reproductive and sexual health of the citizens of Kyrgyzstan”, Institute for Equal Rights and Opportunities”. 2001, Bishkek.

17. Conference: “The Institution of Ombudsman”. Zhogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, 2001, Bishkek.

18. Round table: “Problems and prospects for the emergence of a State based on the rule of law in the Kyrgyz Republic”. 2002, Bishkek.

19. National seminar on the problems of implementing international humanitarian law. 2001, Bishkek.

20. Educational seminar on the programme “The Law and Us – Street Law” for employees of law enforcement agencies. 2001, Bishkek.

21. Round table: “Problems of ratifying the Statute of the International Criminal Court in the Kyrgyz Republic”, session 1. 2001, Bishkek.

22. Round table “Problems of ratifying the Statute of the International Criminal Court in the Kyrgyz Republic”, session 2. 2002, Bishkek.

As far as publications are concerned, the following monographs, textbooks and study aids were of greatest interest:

1. Monograph “Human rights. Theory and practice”(Sydykova, L.Ch., ed.), Bishkek, 1998, 292 pages.

2. The individual and the law (Alisheva, A. R., ed.), Bishkek, 1999, 160 pages.

3. Life free of violence, Bishkek, 1999, 145 pages.

4. Ayal Ukuktary – Women’s rights (Aitmatova, R. T., ed.), Bishkek, 1999, 210 pages.

5. Nikiforov, M., Rights of the child (Legal aspects), (Sydykova, L. Ch., ed.), Bishkek, 2000, 67 pages.

6. Alisheva, A. R., Shkolnik, V. A., The individual in the State, study aid, 10th class, Bishkek, 2000, 163 pages.

7. Nikiforov, M., Gavrilova, E., “The law and us”, textbook, 9th class, “Promoting development of the legal infrastructure and of legal education” social fund, Bishkek, 2000, 256 pages.

8. Nikiforov, M., Gavrilova, E., “The law and us”, teacher’s aid, 9th class, “Promoting development of the legal infrastructure and of legal education” social fund, Bishkek, 2000, 332 pages.

9. Preventing violence against women and combating its consequences, study aid for employees of law enforcement agencies (Tugelbayeva, B. G., ed.), Bishkek, 2001, 371 pages.

10. “Mechanisms for implementing the reproductive and sexual rights of the individual in Kyrgyzstan”/ IRPVK digest, Bishkek, 2001, 251 pages.

11. Women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan: Muslim traditions, Islamic values and contemporary law (programme for raising legal literacy), Sydykova, L. Ch., ed., Bishkek, 2001, 334 pages.

12. Borubashev, B. I., International humanitarian law, study aid, Bishkek, 2002.

13. Lobbying for civil initiatives, Tugelbayeva, B. G., ed., Bishkek, 2002, 49 pages.

Part II. Information relating to the implementation of articles 1

to 16 of the Convention

Article 1. Definition of discrimination against women

The process of implementing the provisions of the Convention in national legislation in Kyrgyzstan is ongoing. A law on the protection of the rights of minors, under which the State provides for observance, free of any discrimination, of all the rights of minors, irrespective of the race, sex, language, religious, political or other convictions, ethnic or social background, property status and state of health of the minor, was adopted in Kyrgyzstan on 22 November 1999.

A law on the accession of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted on 23 April 2002.

Article 2. Commitments to eliminate discrimination

The provisions of the Convention are taken into account in the drafting of national legislation and national development programmes, but no special mechanism for monitoring fulfilment of the Convention has been established in Kyrgyzstan.

In accordance with Presidential Decree No. 363 of 28 December 2000 on the reorganization of the central State organs, institutional changes have occurred in State policy on the status of women. By Presidential Order No. 96 of 27 February 2001, the previously existing National Gender Policy Council reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic has been transformed into the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, which is a coordinating and consultative body providing for the implementation of State policy in relation to women, the family and gender development. It has been staffed by a new set of members, comprising heads of the main ministries, departments, institutions of higher education and non-governmental organizations. In order to enhance the status of the National Council, a Secretary of State of the Kyrgyz Republic has been appointed as its chairperson.

The National Council exercises its powers on the basis of the resolution approved by Presidential Decree No. 46 of 16 February 2002, according to which the main tasks of the National Council are:

To coordinate action on implementing a national policy and strategy aimed at achieving gender equality;

To assist in the implementation of a national policy on strengthening the family;

To carry out monitoring of the observance of the Kyrgyz Republic’s international obligations in the area of gender development, including implementation of the Convention on Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on Women’s Rights, and the preparation of national reports in accordance with international requirements;

To organize monitoring of the activity of ministries and departments and State administrations in implementing the National Plan of Action for Achieving Gender Equality;

To ensure the integration of gender perspectives into national policy and into strategies and State programmes;

To assist in the gender analysis of statutory and normative documents;

To promote partnership with civil society and effective collaboration with international organizations in the field of gender development in the Kyrgyz Republic;

To coordinate the targeted use of budgetary financial resources and foreign investments aimed at implementing the State’s gender strategy;

To promote the involvement of women and the utilization of their potential in State administration and to increase the representation of women at all levels of decision making;

To promote the establishment of mechanisms to ensure that gender equality and gender equity are achieved in all areas of socio-economic and socio-political life;

To propagate positive findings in the area of family policy in order to provide support for the family and protection for motherhood and childhood.

The Presidential Order referred to above set up a working body under the National Council, the Secretariat on Women, Family and Gender Development, which is an organizational subdivision of the Administration of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Secretariat was the successor to the State Commission for the Family, Women and Youth reporting to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, which operated in the period from 1996 to 2000.

Enhancing the status of the institutional mechanism has undoubtedly been a very important factor from the point of view of ensuring its high degree of stability and independence from changes in the Government of the Republic. At the same time, the fact that the restructuring extended over a period of a year had a negative effect on the continuity of staffing of the mechanism, on its work and on the financing of further activity in achieving gender equality.

The new National Plan of Action for Achieving Gender Equality for the Period 2002-2006 was approved by Presidential decree on 2 March 2002. It takes into account the problems and obstacles which the experience of the preceding national programme for the advancement of women “Ayalzat” had shown to exist, and attaches priority to integrating gender perspectives into all spheres of activity of the State and society. A distinguishing feature of the National Plan of Action is the presence of base indicators developed for monitoring and evaluating the progress of gender policy.

This National Plan has been coordinated with the overall national strategy, the “Comprehensive Development Framework for the Kyrgyz Republic to 2010” (CDF), the aim of which is to achieve political and social well-being and economic prosperity for the people in conditions where the principles of freedom, human dignity and equal opportunities for all prevail. In section 4 of the Comprehensive Development Framework “Strategy for National Renewal”, paragraph 4.2 “A just society guaranteeing security and human development” contains provisions under item 4.2.7 on “Gender policy” stating that work on banishing gender inequality and on implementing measures aimed at ensuring equality for women, eliminating discrimination against women in recruitment and dismissal from employment, involving women more actively in the work of State organs and preserving and enhancing their occupational status, will be continued and broadened.

The measures called for under the National Plan of Action have also been incorporated in the National Poverty Reduction Strategy in Kyrgyzstan for the Period 2003-2005.

A national “Human Rights” programme for the period 2002-2010 was approved in Kyrgyzstan by Presidential decree of 2 January 2002. The programme acknowledges, in particular, sexual harassment in the workplace or at a place of study as a violation of human rights. The plan for implementing this programme also contains provisions for:

Reviewing the criminal liability of officials for sexual harassment in relation to women who are in a subordinate position in the office or workplace;

Providing women with equal legislative protection in investigations and court proceedings concerning violent crimes against women, including violence in the family, which must not be viewed by the police authorities as a private matter;

Implementing the collection of all statistical information available in the country on cases of violence in the family (including data from hotlines for women) which describes the circumstances under which crimes have been committed, the proportion of criminal cases which concluded with an investigation in court, and the level of severity of the sentences handed down;

Establishing international cooperation in the fight against all forms of trafficking in women and children, including trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, pornography, prostitution and sex tourism;

Providing legal services for victims of crime.

The Presidential decree of 14 January 2001 on measures to enhance the effectiveness of the safeguarding of basic human and civil rights and freedoms in the Kyrgyz Republic charged the prosecution branch with the tasks of taking effective measures to implement the Constitutional principle of full, unconditional and immediate protection of human rights and freedoms, of halting any legal infringements in this area and of repairing any situation where an infringement has occurred. In order to ensure implementation of the tasks referred to and on the basis of a Presidential decree of 6 February 2001 on measures to improve surveillance by the prosecution branch and to strengthen further the rule of law in the Kyrgyz Republic, special departments for supervising the observance of human rights and freedoms were established in the Republic’s prosecution system. This allowed the prosecution branch to pay greater attention to the problem of achieving gender equality and to the problem of violence against women, particularly within the family. Work has begun on introducing changes into statistical reporting in order to create gender-disaggregated crime statistics, to develop legislative instruments aimed at extending the rights of victims in criminal proceedings and to safeguard more fully guarantees to protect the rights of citizens who have been victims of criminal acts, and jointly with non-governmental organizations, proposals are being established for improving the Republic’s legislation in order to overcome negative gender stereotypes that exist in its culture and traditions.

Analysis of crimes committed against women in the period 1999-2001 shows a steady increase in the number that fall in the category of crimes against the individual. Here, there is a rising trend in the number of infringements involving the intentional infliction of minor injury to health (214 and 267 cases respectively) and of serious injury to health (33 and 42 cases), coercion of a woman to marry (7 and 18 cases) and violent actions of a sexual nature (1 and 6 cases). The number of murders of women remains quite high, with 68 cases in 2001, accounting for approximately 17.5 per cent of victims in the overall total of recorded murders. The number of cases of rape has fallen somewhat (from 247 in 2000 to 173 in 2001). The circumstances cited above led to the need to develop a range of measures for preventing incidents of criminal violence against women, and these were incorporated in the National Plan of Action for Achieving Gender Equality in the Kyrgyz Republic for the Period 2002-2006.

As regards crime committed by women, the lack of gender-disaggregated crime statistics makes it impossible to obtain full data about the pattern of such crime. As of 1 April 2002 (i.e. over the first three months of the current year), 694 women had been convicted of crimes in Kyrgyzstan. Of these, 123 were convicted of murder, one of involvement in rape, 15 of robbery, 34 of burglary, 12 of vandalism, 172 of producing, transporting and distributing narcotics, 37 of economic crimes and eight of escaping from places of deprivation of liberty. As can be seen, most of the women have been convicted for crimes connected with drugs and for having committed violent crimes, some for mercenary motives. The rise in criminality among women is causing major concern in the Republic. In order to prevent and reduce criminality among women, it is essential that an in-depth criminological study of all aspects of it be conducted. To this end, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic has commenced work on drawing up manuals on “The criminological characteristics and causes of criminality amongst women” and on “Problematic issues in combating prostitution”.

In Kyrgyzstan, all convicted women serve their sentence in the corrective colony for women (OP 36/2) or in one of 18 settlements. Despite the rule enshrined in the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic under which female minors must serve their sentence separately from adult women (Art. 49 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic), the lack of resources for holding female minors in a separate corrective institution means that this statutory provision is not being implemented.

The State Labour Inspectorate of the Kyrgyz Republic is responsible for monitoring and supervising compliance with legislation on labour and labour protection in enterprises and organizations in Kyrgyzstan, irrespective of their legal form of organization. In the period from 1999 to 2001 a total of more than 2,800 inspections were carried out, in the course of which 15,000 infringements of labour legislation were revealed. 42 inspections regarding the infringement of women’s employment rights were carried out and 227 infringements uncovered. The principal violations were unlawful dismissal, non-payment of wages, failure to grant those guarantees and compensation established by law for cases where workers are released in connection with the winding-up of an enterprise or with staff redundancies, infringement of working–hour arrangements and non-payment of overtime.

With regard to the treatment of lesbianism as a sexual crime, it should be noted that under current criminal legislation in the Kyrgyz Republic lesbianism may serve as grounds for asserting criminal liability only where it is not practised voluntarily but involves the use of force, either physical or psychological, or the exploitation of the defenceless state of a victim who has proven incapable of offering resistance or of expressing her disagreement. Lesbianism not involving the use of force is not punishable in Kyrgyzstan.

Article 3. Development and advancement of women

Like all the States which acceded to the Beijing Platform for Action, Kyrgyzstan entered into commitments to promote the development and advancement of women in all spheres of activity of the State, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres, ensuring this advancement by adopting appropriate legislative measures. Adequate legislative and normative instruments which recognised basic human rights and freedoms, irrespective of gender identity, had already been established in Kyrgyzstan prior to this.

On the conclusion of the period for implementing “Ayalzat”, the national programme for the advancement of women which ran from 1996 to 2000, an evaluation was carried out of how successful implementation of the programme had been. Both State organs and non-governmental and donor organizations took part in the evaluation. On the whole, this was a good test of how work on implementing state programmes must be concluded and of the way in which State organs must report back to the people and publicize the results of work that has been carried out.

The summing up of the results of the national programme “Ayalzat” at the international conference “Women Through Centuries” in April 2001 revealed that significant advances had occurred in such areas as developing an institutional mechanism for the advancement of women, improving national legislation in the area of women’s rights and in the fields of education and health care, reducing all forms of violence against women, providing support for girls and expanding economic opportunities for women, including women in rural areas.

At the same time, attention was drawn to obstacles which hamper the achievement of progress in the advancement of women and the achievement of gender balance: the lack of stability of the institutional mechanism, the lack of continuity in its staffing provision, the incomplete financing of the national programme “Ayalzat”, which made up 30 per cent of the required total, rising poverty and unemployment among women, the absence of gender perspectives in politics and in the popular consciousness, the retention of patriarchal structures, the lack of development of a system for training women leaders and consequent low representation of women at the decision–making level and ignorance about the use of gender methodology and of monitoring and appraisal systems in policy analysis.

This analysis served as a basis for developing a new strategy to achieve gender equality, based on the fact that women’s rights form an integral part of general human rights. In the new National Plan of Action for Achieving Gender Equality in the Kyrgyz Republic for the Period 2002-2006, the main goal of State policy as regards the advancement of women is to secure the full and equal participation of women in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State. Taking the National Plan of Action as its starting point, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is focussing its attention on the issues causing most concern in Kyrgyzstan today. These are, in particular, improving the institutional mechanism, eradicating discrimination against women in employment and reducing poverty among women, improving women’s health and broadening their access to high-quality medical services, extending the involvement of women in politics and reducing all forms of violence against women.

Unfortunately, despite the relatively high level of legal provision, there is in reality no provision in many existing regulations for mechanisms affording women equal opportunities with men. The law on government service may be cited as an example. Moreover, a major obstacle to implementation of the principles of gender equality is the low level of awareness among women themselves about their rights and the continuing influence of existing cultural stereotypes in which the woman is principally seen as the upholder of family values. Because of this, the practice of passing property, and now also land, down the male line continues, the involvement of women in financial operations and in carrying out economic activities is not greatly welcomed, and women are gradually being squeezed out of high-income sectors. For example, in the area of banking, insurance and pension provision, women accounted for 75.4 per cent of employees in 1990, but only 53.9 per cent in 2000. At the same time, women generally have the advantage in exercising their child-rearing rights and responsibilities in cases of divorce, which imposes a great responsibility on them.

In this context, by failing to take into account the imbalance which has arisen in the status of men and women in society, the gender neutrality of many regulations in national legislation places women at a disadvantage, and women routinely find themselves worse off when seeking access to work, sources of finance, credit, land and property and senior political posts and when seeking to exercise rights of ownership and inheritance. Because they do not start on equal terms, women are losing the economic and political duel with men.

This state of affairs has highlighted the urgent need to conduct a gender analysis of the laws and Government programmes and to prepare new draft laws or proposals and amendments to the laws in force which would be more sensitive to the interests of women and would take account of the specific nature of their current position, would facilitate the implementation of a more active gender policy and would exert a targeted influence on changes in gender norms in the popular consciousness.

Today, it is obvious that a simple declaration of the equality of women’s rights and freedoms and of political commitment to this are not enough. It is vital that there is genuine backing for a policy of achieving gender equality by amending legislation, by devising specific gender-equity mechanisms which take into account the situation that has emerged in practice, by reducing the impact of negative cultural factors and stereotypes and by introducing additional mechanisms such as gender quotas that will enhance opportunities for women.

Article 4. Accelerating the achievement of gender equality

No use is being made in Kyrgyzstan of special temporary measures of positive discrimination, but there is a debate at present about the possibility of employing gender quotas in government bodies so that, for example, no more than 60 per cent of the staff of an organization may be of one sex.

The Parliament of the Republic is also considering a draft law on State guarantees to safeguard gender equality. It is designed to regulate matters with regard to establishing equal rights and opportunities for persons of both sexes in social, political, economic, cultural and other areas of people’s lives and to protect women and men from discrimination on grounds of sex. The draft law is intended to establish progressive democratic relations between women and men on the basis of national traditions, and it provides State guarantees of equal rights to persons of both sexes. The adoption of this law will allow the principle of equal rights and opportunities for women and men to be included in national legislation.

Article 5. Gender roles and stereotypes

The mass media are attempting to create a new and realistic media image of women in Kyrgyzstan. A radio broadcast for women “Ayalzat” has been going out on the air in several languages (Kyrgyz, Russian, Uzbek) for a number of years now, and the newspaper publication Asylzat is a successful enterprise. The television channels cover the involvement of women in the political processes taking place in the Republic, organize periodic meetings of leaders of the women’s movement with media representatives and increase the flow of information about women’s non-governmental organizations and about State policy for improving the status of women in Kyrgyzstan.

The majority of the Republic’s newspapers have increased the amount of material they publish about women and highlight both achievements and failures of the women’s movement as well as problems relating to women’s education, health and economic situation, with an emphasis on female unemployment and poverty. Women politicians, scientists, educationalists and entrepreneurs have become more frequent participants in media reports. In the last year, journalists have written particularly prolifically on the issues of women’s involvement in the economy and in politics, entrepreneurship among women, violence against women in the family and in society, criminality among women and prostitution.

Many of the leading media publications have introduced regular columns devoted to examining relations between the sexes in society and in the family, and special “women’s” and “family” programmes have been created on television and radio.

The real pattern of family incomes and the role of men and women in shaping the family budget have changed radically in the last 10 years and are unlikely to lead to a revival of the patriarchal stereotype of women’s role in society. The majority of women have become de facto family breadwinners and engage in types of economic activity, e.g. “shuttle” commerce and other types of work-related travel, that cannot be combined with “keeping the home fires burning”. Men, for whom traditional stereotypes dictated the roles of provider and breadwinner, have proven incapable of adapting to the new reality resulting from the socio-economic reforms, and are experiencing extreme unease and feeling the pressure of the traditionalist stereotype. However, it is fair to say that the media image of women and men is on the whole unrealistic.

On the whole, the mass media do not typically display conscious discrimination against women but they nonetheless still contain relatively powerful gender stereotypes.

The pro-active model of women’s behaviour will be especially welcome in the area of family life. Columns devoted to male/female relations usually give advice on how a woman can look seductive and retain her youthfulness or weight, issue psychological prescriptions on how a woman should use her ability to control and suppress her emotions to maintain harmony in family and marital relations and talk about how to support a husband in pursuing his career and how to raise children properly. A number of television programmes are of the “home beautiful” type, presenting a variety of cookery and fashion tips, etc. In other words, the mass media, in the majority of cases, essentially reproduce the complete set of traditional gender stereotypes where the woman is a passive being, a commodity, an object of others’ interests and desires or an individual whose role in society is limited to the family roles of mother and wife and, less commonly, those of assistant and obedient employee in the employment sphere.

Advertising, where women appear in the overwhelming majority of cases as objects of desire, commodities and embodiments of biological sexuality, is an area that particularly reinforces sexist stereotypes.

A new and worrying trend has appeared in the mass media where materials to promote gender equality are presenting as scientific truths ideas of the age-old traditional democratic nature of gender relations in Kyrgyz society and of their basis in Islam, ideas of how equal rights are lodged in the consciousness of Kyrgyz people, both men and women, at the genetic level and ideas about true Islam being a gender-just and gender-balanced doctrine and the prophet Mohammed being the first campaigner for gender equality.

Alongside this “hidden” offensive by Islamic tradition disguised as gender theory, there are also radical forms of intransigent media propaganda aimed at reinforcing the stereotypes of the second-class and dependent status of women. Thus, in the name of Islam, the reactionary television programme “Kolomto”, broadcast on the state-run national television channel, campaigns for women to return to a righteous way of life. The strange mixture of patriarchal and conservative religious values and principles concerning the role of women in society is also advocated in some less radical television and radio programmes such as “Aiyl kechteri” and “Zhalan, kyzdar zhana men”, which say that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and measure the value of her life by the number of children she has given birth to.

Unfortunately, the way in which the specialist women’s press functions is characterized by instability as a consequence of financial difficulties and its transitory nature. For example, the magazine Ayalzat and the television programme “Ak-Bosogo” both lasted for very short periods and the magazine Sovremennitsa and newspaper Zhenskoye delo have gone out of circulation.

Publications by non-governmental organizations whose activity is based on short-term projects supported by grants from international donor organizations appear in circulation and then disappear again. Bulletins for and about women that are currently in circulation include Ishker Ayym (published under the aegis of the Association for the Support of Women Entrepreneurs), the crisis centre bulletin Shans [Chance], the bulletin of the women’s network of the OSCE ODIHR project and the Conrad Adenauer Fund Zhenshchiny mogut vsyo! [Women can do everything!] and several others. Often, the impact of NGO publications is restricted both by the negligible size of the target groups compared with society as a whole and by the amateur standard of the publications.

On the whole, it can be stated that insufficient efforts are being made in Kyrgyzstan to raise the people’s awareness in the area of human rights and to establish a non-traditional perception of men and women.

Worthy of mention among the special information campaigns is the regional campaign to prevent violence against women “A life without violence is our right”, which is taking place in Kyrgyzstan during 2001-2002 under the aegis of UNIFEM, with the involvement of international organizations like the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation, UNFPA and others as partners. As part of the campaign, social plays and special programmes are being produced and broadcast on TV and radio, competitions for the best articles by journalists on the theme of the prevention of violence, etc.

As far as discriminatory traditions and customs are concerned, customs such as bride theft and polygamy existed de facto and continue to do so today without being subject to any serious legal prosecution. Every year, bride theft destroys the lives of many girls, stolen and compelled to marry against their will. Frequently, concealment of the crime is encouraged by the relatives of the victim who persuade the girl to remain in her new family in order to “hide her shame”. According to some studies, a significant proportion of married women in rural areas start their married life in just such a way. Although forcing a woman to marry is recognised as a punishable criminal offence, nevertheless, in actual fact both society and the State adopt a fairly liberal stance toward bride theft. According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, 18 such cases were recorded in 2001, which is twice the number recorded in 2000.

As regards polygamy in a common household, this phenomenon continues to occur despite the criminal ban and punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to two years. Women who find themselves in the position of being second wives are subject to exploitation as unpaid labour and frequently have their legal rights infringed, since their marriage is not registered. The situation is complicated by the fact that a significant proportion of the population classify polygamy as one of the “privileges” of the faithful Muslim, especially the well-off, even though the majority of the population has an extremely vague idea of the basic tenets and duties of Muslims. Virtually no work is being carried out to enlighten people or to combat polygamy.

Whatever arguments the proponents of polygamy shelter behind (references to offering security to impoverished women and the need to increase the birth rate among the land-owning classes figure most frequently among the arguments), such a practice is at variance with human rights and with international documents on women’s rights adopted by Kyrgyzstan and is a clear manifestation of male chauvinism and gender inequality.

There are 13 non-governmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan working on programmes and projects providing direct services to women who have been victims of violence. In order to carry out practical work in this area, 10 of the organizations have set up specialized units – crisis centres and shelters - and three of the organizations have established counselling or preventive treatment centres. The crisis centres and shelters provide women who have been victims of violence on request with free medical (first aid), psychological, legal and other services, such as help in finding work and retraining places to enable them to acquire new skills. Women may stay at the shelters together with their children for up to one month. Counselling and preventive treatment centres are set up principally for young people and women who have been the victims of illegal trafficking. These organizations also work on raising public awareness of the problem of violence against women, of ways of preventing it and of what types of aid are available for the victims of violence. The partnership between crisis centres, shelters, women’s non-governmental organizations, local authorities and educational institutions continues to develop. It is therefore possible to speak of the emergence of a civil initiative in the provinces aimed at organizing forces opposed to violence in order to halt, block and prevent violence.

Since 2000, special gender programmes have been implemented for health care institutions in Kyrgyzstan on the problem of providing protection for women who have been victims of violence. In cooperation with a non-governmental organization, the “Diamond” Association, training has been started for officers of police units on active duty and prosecution branch officers, and a manual has been produced and published for health care institutions on “Violence against women: preventing it and combating its consequences”. Cooperation and partnership with the non-governmental sector are built into the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ schedule of principal organizational measures for 2002. In particular, the Ministry’s agencies will work actively with the crisis centres and shelters for women who have been victims of violence. Drawing on the resources of academic institutions, work is being carried out on adapting the training referred to above for use by institutions within the Republic’s system of internal affairs and prosecution agencies, which will enable the executive and supervisory bodies to implement gender policy consistently.

This will also be facilitated by the adoption of a gender-sensitive law, drawn up by the non-governmental organizations, on social and legal protection from violence in the family. The law includes an effective mechanism for suppressing and preventing violence in the family, the protection order, as well as an integrated approach, involving the public, for combating violence in the family in a way that produces results.

A new strategy for combating violence against women is being drawn up in Kyrgyzstan that takes into account its specific character as a mountainous country with a predominantly rural population. This involves establishing at the local level the potential to counteract violence by pooling the efforts of self-help groups, women activists and leaders, local law-enforcement agencies and authorities, representatives of elders’ courts and employees in the education and health care systems. It will adapt to rural conditions an initiative of the Bishkek municipal kenesh (council) of deputies, which has experience of working in this area. The initiative is reflected in the ruling of 10 October 2001 on further development of joint action by community councils and elders’ courts to prevent infringements of the law and to strengthen the social order. By taking into account the fact that opportunities for rural women to obtain help in crisis centres are restricted because of the inadequate development of communications and infrastructure in mountainous areas, this strategy will make it possible not only to extend their access to protection from violence but also to promote the overall development of civil responsibility in the provinces.

On the whole, it can be stated that an awareness of the need to combat gender-based violence has been reached in Kyrgyzstan, and significant positive developments can be seen in terms of compliance with the recommendations of the Beijing Platform for Action for reducing all forms of gender-based violence. However, there are also a number of problems in advancing this policy in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, in the system of criminal law in Kyrgyzstan, violence in the family falls into the category of domestic violence (as understood in the period when the Republic was part of the USSR), as a result of which it is difficult to assess its scale reliably and to monitor changes. Statistics from the crisis centres and shelters do not come in a standard form, which also renders analysis of the issue more difficult. Women victims face a number of obstacles in exercising their rights to protection. These include the inadequate provision of free legal counselling, especially for rural women, and the stereotypes that still exist in law-enforcement agencies as regards the guilt of the victim. Note is made of the poor coverage of the problem of gender violence in the media and of the general lack of information materials about preventive measures and of facilities providing help to women who have been victims of violence. The main problem, however, is inadequate financial provision by the State for the further development of programmes and projects concerning the problem of violence against women. For example, all non-governmental organizations have expressed the opinion that the chief obstacle to the development of a strong and stable network of crisis centres is the lack of financing, even if this relates only to part of the project, from the local budget.

Article 6. Exploitation of women

Prostitution has not been legalised in Kyrgyzstan, but the validity of the criminal law with regard to rape does not depend on the status of the victim and applies equally to women prostitutes.

The rise in the growth of trafficking in women and children is causing growing alarm in the Republic. Unfortunately, there is to date no system in the Kyrgyz Republic for monitoring (tracking) the sending of women abroad for illegal trafficking purposes. In this connection, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conducted an independent investigation in 2000 on “Trafficking in women and children”, the main aims of which were to determine the factors contributing to the growth in trafficking in migrants out of Kyrgyzstan, to gather information on the scale of and methods used in the organization of migrant trafficking, to identify cases of human rights violations in relation to the victims of trafficking and to evaluate the existing legislative base for protecting victims of trafficking and the system for punishing criminals.

According to information from the Department of Migration Services under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, the total number of emigrants from Kyrgyzstan in 1999 stood at 8,367. More than two thirds of these emigrated to CIS countries, with the remaining 1,881 emigrating to countries further afield[1]. Unfortunately, because of an absence of records it is impossible to determine what percentage of those emigrating from the Republic are women. An independent IOM estimate relating to the number of cases of women illegally exported from Kyrgyzstan in the same year, 1999, stood at 4,000.

The principal cause underlying the existence of this problem in Kyrgyzstan is the presence of loopholes in the legislative base and in the system of border controls. Factors contributing to the growth in trafficking in women are the difficult economic situation in the Republic, the high level of unemployment, which produces a high level of mobility among women, and the imperfect legal protection of citizens. In addition, Kyrgyzstan has already become a major corridor for illicit drug trafficking from South Asia to Western countries, and organized criminal groups, which are also used for trafficking in people, operate in its territory. This allows traffickers in people not only to exploit Kyrgyzstan as a transit point in the trafficking of people from countries in East and South Asia but also as a source of raw material for trafficking in migrants to other countries, near and far.

In ethnic terms, women of Slavic extraction predominate (49 per cent) among women emigrating abroad, with Kyrgyz women making up 23 per cent and other nationalities accounting for 28 per cent. The presence of a high percentage of women of Slavic extraction shows that this category is in demand in countries such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. However, taking age as the criterion, the youngest women are those of Kyrgyz nationality.

On the whole, girls (about 50 per cent) travel to employment abroad as tourists through tourist agencies. Until 2001, tourism companies were permitted to send people abroad provided they held a licence (however, they carried no responsibility) and, according to data from the State Committee for Tourism, Sport and Youth Policy, about 50 tourist agencies held such licences. The abolition as of 1 January 2001 of licensing of the right to place citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic in jobs abroad created favourable conditions for the export of large numbers of girls and women abroad. According to a report from the Consulate General of the Kyrgyz Republic in the United Arab Emirates on the situation in 2001, there were about one thousand women from Kyrgyzstan in the UAE under false documents or without any documents at all. Their illegal status adds to the complexity of their staying in the territory of the country concerned and has an adverse effect in terms of the protection which the Consulate General of the Kyrgyz Republic in the UAE is able to grant them. In the period from 1999 to May 2001 alone, 54 girls were deported from the UAE.

In order to tighten controls and prevent trafficking in persons, including women, a series of measures have been adopted. Government Regulation No. 474 of 17 April 2001 established a working commission under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic to resolve issues connected with the prevention and suppression of trafficking in women and children in the Kyrgyz Republic. Under the Government Regulation, responsibility for identifying, arresting and punishing traffickers in women has passed into the hands of the National Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic. A Presidential decree of 21 April 2002 on measures to combat the illegal export and trafficking in persons in the Kyrgyz Republic ratified a programme of action aimed at combating trafficking in persons, which envisages the involvement of ministries and State organs in implementing points relating to the exchange of information aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the fight against trafficking in persons.

Government Regulation No. 631 of 12 December 2001 also ratified provisions on rules governing the activity of natural and legal persons in the Kyrgyz Republic engaged in the placement of citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic in jobs outside its borders and on rules governing the arrangement of employment activity for foreign citizens and stateless persons in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. These oblige agencies engaged in either attracting foreign labour or sending citizens of the Republic for placement in jobs abroad to undergo compulsory registration with the Migration Service Department.

Four criminal cases were brought to court by the Republic’s law-enforcement agencies over the period 1998-2001 under article 124 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic on the solicitation of persons for exploitation, and in 2000, 12 criminal cases relating to 16 women were brought to court under article 346 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic on illegal crossing of the State’s borders.

Article 7. Political and social life

The system of government and municipal services, political parties, non-governmental and communal organizations, local self-government bodies and local administrative bodies are important from the point of view of involving women in the process of government.

The institution of government service is a crucial part of State administration. Here, above all, a “level playing field” for men and women must be provided and equal access to government service and equal opportunities for advancement in it established for all citizens.

An analysis of statistical data shows that although approximately equal numbers of women and men (9,068 and 9,078 respectively) were employed in the system of State administration in 2000, senior managerial posts filled by women were, as before, concentrated in the lower and middle echelons of management. This can be seen in the considerable gender imbalance in the distribution of government employees of central State administrative organs by position held. It is particularly marked in senior and higher intermediate posts, where overall 14.7 per cent of senior posts are held by women and 85.3 per cent by men and where women and men hold 27.4 per cent and 72.6 per cent of higher intermediate posts respectively. Only in junior positions (51.1 per cent and 48.9 per cent) can a trend toward a levelling out of the gender imbalance in the staffing structure be observed. The most marked gender imbalance here can be seen in the Administration of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Legislative Assembly of the Zhogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, where women occupy only eight to ten per cent of the top posts, and in the Republic’s system of State Agencies where women are absent altogether from the top positions.

An examination of the gender component in the vertical distribution of government employees in the executive branch, from the local (rural) level right up to the national level, also exposes a gender imbalance. For example, government employees at the national level in 2000 comprised 102 women and 925 men, while at the same time at the rural level 1,930 officials were women and 1,240 were men. In a geographical breakdown of government employees, men predominate in virtually all regions of the Republic, but this is especially the case in the Batken, Issyk-Kul and Naryn regions, where no more than 17 to 18 per cent of government employees are women.

Table 1

Government employees of central state administrative organs as

at October 1st, 2001, by grade and by gender


Women

Government employees
By grade, in %
Senior
Higher intermediate
Lower intermediate
Junior






Total
41.3
14.7
27.4
48.4
51.1
Legislative Assembly
21.5
8.1
22.2
24.5
0.0
Assembly of People’s Representatives
37.7
0.0
36.1
65.0
0.0
President’s Administration
25.0
10.5
10.9
59.3
0.0
Prime Minister’s Office
30.9
8.0
32.0
45.7
0.0
Ministries
49.2
17.6
26.6
53.8
55.7
Committees
61.5
11.1
63.9
64.6
60.0
Commissions
47.1
17.4
30.6
57.1
69.7
Agencies
47.9
0.0
20.8
58.3
60.0
Inspectorates
42.7
12.5
35.1
44.7
57.7
Other
29.3
25.6
18.6
37.5
36.1

Men

Government employees
As % by position
Senior
Higher intermediate
Lower intermediate
Junior






Total
58.7
85.3
72.6
51.6
48.9
Legislative Assembly
78.5
91.9
77.8
75.5
0.0
Assembly of People’s Representatives
62.3
100.0
63.9
35.0
0.0
President’s Administration
75.0
89.5
89.1
40.7
0.0
Prime Minister’s Office
69.1
92.0
68.0
54.3
0.0
Ministries
50.8
82.4
73.4
46.2
44.3
Committees
38.5
88.9
36.1
35.4
40.0
Commissions
52.9
82.6
69.4
42.9
30.3
Agencies
52.1
100.0
79.2
41.7
40.0
Inspectorates
57.3
87.5
64.9
55.3
42.3
Other
70.7
74.4
81.4
62.5
63.9

A decline in the representation of women has been noted in the Republic’s judicial organs and the courts. Compared with 1999, by 2000 the number of women had fallen from 1,004 to 829, while the number of men, by contrast, had risen from 829 to 1,286.

Table 2

Number of government employees in State executive and administrative organs, by sex


1999

2000

Women
Men

Women
Men






Total employed in State administration
8 370
10 995

9 068
9 078
State administration of a general nature of which:
5 123
9 208

6 032
6 960
Legislative work
6
99

7
98
Executive work
5 117
9 109

6 025
6 862
including:





Work of State executive and administrative organs
at the ... level:
1 572
3 195

2 478
2 849
national
79
192

102
925
regional, district (municipal)
402
767

446
684
rural
1 091
2 236

1 930
1 240
Taxation-related work
821
1 689

816
683
Customs work
205
1 077

202
863
Socio-economic administration
2 519
3 148

2 535
2 566
International work
47
54

40
71
Judicial organs and the courts
1 004
992

829
1 286
Compulsory social insurance
2 196
741

2 167
761

A gender analysis was carried out of the law on government service, which determined that it was gender-neutral. Consequently, proposals were put forward with the aim of incorporating a gender component into normative and legislative instruments regulating the procedure for filling vacant posts and the promotion of government employees. However, no progress has as yet been made in this matter.

The State Commission for the Family, Women and Youth which reported to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and operated in the period 1996-2000 implemented specific measures aimed at improving opportunities for women to advance to positions of authority and at establishing a gender-balanced staffing structure in government bodies. During the pre-election campaign in 2000 an appeal was submitted to the President, Government and Zhogorku Kenesh with a proposal for introducing a mechanism with a provisional quota of places for women into the new electoral law. In addition, it was recommended that potential women election candidates use political parties for their advancement, which implied investing the candidate’s personal resources. A database has been set up on women leaders and activists in the women’s movement, training has been organized for women candidates at the Political Leadership School run by the non-governmental organization “Zavety Manasa in the twenty-first century” and cooperation has been established on a permanent basis with women’s non-governmental organizations in the Republic in order to enhance their potential and resources.

Despite the efforts made, women have been unable to secure a satisfactory number of places as deputies, and a “pyramidal” pattern of gender imbalance is currently to be seen in the legislative branch of the government. Of 105 deputies in the Zhogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic only seven are women, and the proportion of women does not exceed 12 to 13 per cent in the regional and district (municipal) keneshes and 16 per cent at the rural level. On the whole, the situation is characterized by the fact that the women of Kyrgyzstan, who constitute 52 per cent of the electorate, are putting male politicians in power but are not themselves becoming equal partners in decision-making processes.

The party system in Kyrgyzstan is at the formative stage and is not geared toward the advancement of women. The gender component is very poorly reflected in the organizational structure of political parties. Only about half of the parties have women in their ruling bodies, but their numbers are insignificant, ranging from 1.2 per cent to seven per cent. At the same time, not one of the parties views women as a political force capable of determining a strategy for individual and communal action. There are no plans contained in the programmes of the majority of parties to support women’s political involvement, to encourage the promotion of women to leadership posts or to attract women into the parties’ ranks. Women are seen as objects whose lives must be improved from the outside without developing their own civil initiative.

By distilling the vague opinions and views of their members into concrete programmes and demands, non-governmental organizations make it possible for the interests of individuals to be represented to the government, which is very important in circumstances where the party system has not developed. A large proportion of women’s non-governmental organizations are actively involved in the processes of society’s development and cooperate with the authorities in important areas. It is precisely such cooperation between the State Commission for the Family, Women and Youth and women’s non-governmental organizations that has enabled the relatively successful implementation of the national programme “Ayalzat” and the preparation of the new National Plan of Action for Achieving Gender Policy in Kyrgyzstan for the Period 2002-2006. In this way, the collaboration between State organs and non-governmental organizations that was declared several years ago to be one of the priority aims of State policy is gradually changing from informing and consulting to involvement in administration.

The rise in women’s consciousness has manifested itself not only in an increase in the number of women's non-governmental organizations but also in the increased involvement of women in other institutions of civil society, particularly in organizations of a communal type, i.e. local associations. The activity of these organizations is directed toward broadening the opportunities of less well-off sectors of the population through their concerted action to promote further growth at the level of their village or district. 964 communal organizations, with more than 7,000 people working in them, have been set up and are currently operating in all areas of the Republic within the framework of the UNDP programme “Creating the potential to overcome poverty”, and 54 per cent of those involved in the programme are women.

The significant rise in the number of communal organizations, especially in rural areas, is providing the potential labour force which, given appropriate training, can work under contracts with local authorities in virtually all areas of social work. Moreover, it is precisely in local communities that public administration built on genuinely democratic principles emerges. The value of these organizations lies in the fact that they encourage greater confidence in people who find themselves at the bottom of the social pyramid, both in dealings with each other and with the authorities. It also lies in the fact that working in these organizations shapes new leaders from civil society who are then potential candidates for promotion to the executive and legislative branches of government. In this way, non-governmental and communal organizations open up an additional route by which women may take up positions in administrative bodies.

Article 8. International representation and involvement

24 women currently work in Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices abroad and they make up 10 per cent of the total number of staff employed there. Women occupy the following posts:

1. Consul General – 1

2. Counsellor – 4

3. First Secretary – 4

4. Second Secretary – 1

5. Attaché – 4

6. Technical posts – 10

In terms of ethnic composition, the women include Kyrgyz, Russians and Dungans. The professions represented include specialists in the field of international relations, doctors, lawyers, economists and teachers.

In the UN missions located in Kyrgyzstan:

1. UNFPA – of the nine staff, six are women, including two managers, two secretaries and an accountant;

2. UNICEF – of the 15 staff, eight are women, including four administrators, three programme assistants and a secretary.

3. UNDP – of the 56 staff, 31 are women, including two administrators and 27 midle-ranking women executives (coordinators, assistants, secretaries, etc.)

Of the 48 staff at the representative office of the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation, 22 are women, including two administrators, 18 middle-ranking executives (coordinators, assistants) and two technical workers.

Article 9. Nationality

No changes have occurred in this area over the period just ended.

Article 10. Education

The situation which has emerged in Kyrgyzstan with regard to the education of women continues to remain stable. The proportion of girls among primary school pupils stands at 48.6 per cent and among secondary school pupils at 53.6 per cent. 36 per cent of students in the system of vocational training, which trains specialists for 125 professions in commerce and catering, the clothing industry and consumer services, transport and the printing industry, are girls. Educational institutions in this system have increased markedly the training of specialists for the service sector in response to structural changes taking place in the economy. Training has been introduced in new occupations such as, for example, farmer/farm manager, including training girls on a separate introductory course in farm management with supplementary skills in sewing, cookery and driving.

Uniform standards have been defined for training women specialists in traditional crafts, in particular, saima, kurak, uz koldor (cutters, carpet-weavers, master craftsmen in the manufacture of leather goods), manufacturers of national drinks, manufacturers of yurts and others. Based at vocational colleges, short courses are organized jointly with the employment services to train women in the following occupations: hairdresser, accountant, tailor, seamstress and embroiderer.

Table 3

Students of secondary specialized educational institutions at the commencement of the 2000/2001 academic year, by category of specialisation


As percentage of total

Proportion, in percent

Women
Men

Women
Men






Total
100.0
100.0

65.3
34.7
Economics and planning
20.6
21.2

64.6
35.4
Law and document management
0.8
1.6

49.5
50.5
Education
14.1
3.1

89.6
10.4
Health care
39.9
9.8

88.4
11.6
Culture and the arts
4.7
5.9

60.4
39.6
Ecology and protection of the environment
0.1
2.1

11.3
88.7
Mining engineering
5.6
3.4

75.5
24.5
Power engineering
0.2
0.3

47.5
52.5
Mechanical engineering and metal-working
0.3
3.5

15.2
84.8
Aviation technology

0.7


100.0
Automotive and tractor engineering
0.0
5.9

0.5
99.5
Operation, servicing and repair of machinery and equipment
0.0
3.6

0.9
99.1
Instrument engineering and operation of instruments and apparatus
0.1
0.8

25.0
75.0
Control engineering and operation of automation equipment
0.0
1.4

3.7
96.3
Computer technology and automated systems
0.3
1.6

23.1
76.9
Radio engineering and communications
1.2
2.5

47.6
52.4
Transport operation
0.2
4.3

7.7
92.3
Forest exploitation and wood processing
0.1
0.7

16.0
84.0
Food technology
3.0
2.6

68.6
31.4
Consumer goods technology
3.8
0.2

97.5
2.5
Architecture and construction
0.8
7.4

17.2
82.8
Geodesics and cartography
0.2
0.6

15.9
84.1
Agriculture and forestry
1.5
14.5

15.9
84.1
Commodity research and sales organization
2.2
1.5

73.3
26.7
Metrology, standardization and quality control
-
0.2

-
100.0
Commercial activity
0.2
0.6

43.3
56.7

65.3 per cent of students at secondary specialized educational institutions and 50.7 per cent of students at higher educational institutions are girls. The majority of girls in higher educational institutions traditionally choose an occupation in the fields of education and health care (where they make up 80.4 per cent and 62.1 per cent of students, respectively) though they already account for 51.6 per cent of those entering business and administration. Girls account for 68.6 per cent of humanities students and 60.9 per cent of those studying mathematical sciences. A low proportion of girls is noted among students opting for specializations such as transport (4.3 per cent), veterinary science (18.6 per cent) and construction (21.1 per cent). Approximately the same ratios can be seen in the distribution of postgraduate students across the branches of science. On the whole, the traditional pattern of distribution of the sexes across the sectors of the economy remains, with women and girls typically segregated into occupations in low-profit sectors.

Table 4

Postgraduate students in 2000, by branch of science and by sex

Branch of science
Distribution by sex
Women
Men
Women
Men





Total




Number of persons
1 046
642


Percentage
100
100
62.0
38.0
Including, by branch of science:




Physics/mathematics
5.6
7.5
55.1
44.9
Chemistry
3.4
1.3
81.8
18.2
Biology
3.3
3.1
63.0
37.0
Geology/mineralogy
1.1
3.6
33.3
66.7
Technical sciences
10.7
26.0
40.1
59.9
Agriculture
0.9
3.3
30.0
70.0
History
3.8
4.7
57.1
42.9
Economics
13.3
15.0
59.2
40.8
Philosophy
4.1
1.7
79.6
20.4
Philology
19.7
4.7
87.3
12.7
Geography
3.2
3.7
57.9
42.1
Law
5.1
8.7
48.6
51.4
Education
10.6
2.5
87.4
12.6
Medicine
6.5
7.9
57.1
42.9
Pharmacology
0.2
100.0
Veterinary science
0.3
1.1
30.0
70.0
History of art
2.9
1.7
73.2
26.8
Architecture
0.2
1.3
20.0
80.0
Psychology
1.4
0.3
88.2
11.8
Sociology
1.5
0.6
80.0
20.0
Politics
2.0
1.3
72.4
27.6
Cultural studies
0.2
0.0
100
0.0

Women make up a significant majority (75.6 per cent) of secondary school teachers, but the proportion of women among teachers at higher educational institutions is approximately half this (36.8 per cent). The number of women doctors of science in 2001 was 6.5 per cent higher than in 2000, reaching 44.6 per cent of the total.

Government Regulation No. 259 of 29 April 2002 approved the Development Plan for Education in the Kyrgyz Republic until 2010, in which the main principle behind the direction of reforms in the education system was defined as “the accessibility of high-quality education, i.e. the right of every person to receive a high-quality education at the various levels irrespective of their social position, sex, nationality and race”. It also stated that it was essential to increase the attention given to gender issues in the process of educating and raising the younger generation. Courses in gender orientation have already been introduced into the curricula of a number of higher educational institutions: the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic University, the American University in Kyrgyzstan and the Bishkek Humanitarian University. In line with the Development Plan, the transition to a 12-year secondary education has begun.

Within the framework of the international “Education for all” movement, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic drew up in 2002 a National Plan of Action, which devotes a considerable amount of space to issues surrounding the gender education of young people. As part of the reform of the education system of the Kyrgyz republic, there are provisions for developing and integrating academic standards into courses on “Ensuring a healthy lifestyle”, “Lessons in health”, etc., which will include sections on gender issues. With backing from the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation, an experimental programme is already being implemented in a number of pilot schools under the project “Empowered Education” which is being used to help eradicate functional illiteracy among boys and girls and to teach them about specific aspects of family life and relations between the sexes. Defined gender concepts have also been included in the curriculum for the course on “The individual and society”. Nonetheless, in order to obtain more significant results in rooting out gender stereotypes from school education it will be necessary to carry out a gender analysis of school textbooks and manuals.

Article 11. Employment

The number of people of working age in the Republic in 2001 stood at 2,686,600. Of those who were economically active, 65.3 per cent were women. Gender analysis of the distribution of the population by principal employment shows that in Kyrgyzstan there is both horizontal occupational segregation, i.e. women and men choose spheres of employment that are traditional for their sex, and vertical occupational segregation, i.e. women and men are employed in one sphere of activity but at different levels on the employment ladder.

Examination of the sectoral pattern of employment shows that women occupy more than 70 per cent of jobs in the area of health care and social service provision, two thirds of jobs in education and about half the jobs in hotel services. The employment of women remains quite high in agriculture (46.5 per cent), manufacturing industry (40.3 per cent) and commerce (45.7 per cent), while marked male domination of jobs has emerged in the mining industry, power engineering, construction, transport and public administration.

Table 5

Number of women and men employed in the economy in 2000, by type of economic activity




Proportion, in percent

Women
Men
Women
Men





Employed in the economy – total, in 000s
Of which, as percentage of total:
784.6
983.8
44.4
55.6
Agriculture, hunting and forestry
54.8
51.7
45.8
54.2
Mining industry
0.1
0.8
12.2
87.8
Manufacturing industry
5.8
6.9
40.3
59.7
Production and distribution of electricity, steam, gas and hot water
0.6
1.6
23.1
76.9
Construction
0.7
3.8
13.3
86.7
Commerce, automotive repairs, household articles and articles for personal use
10.7
10.6
44.5
55.5
Hotel and restaurant services
0.9
0.6
51.5
48.5
Transport and communications
1.5
5.2
18.9
81.1
Finance
0.4
0.4
47.1
52.9
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers
1.3
1.9
34.6
65.4
Public administration
1.8
5.2
21.7
78.3
Education
11.8
5.3
64.0
36.0
Health care and social services
7.6
2.6
70.2
29.8
Provision of communal, social and personal services
1.8
3.1
31.6
68.4
Domestic housekeeping services
0.2
0.4
29.0
71.0

The distribution of the employed population by employment status shows that in towns and cities the majority of people work as employees, the proportion being greater among women (75.1 per cent) than among men (67.5 per cent). Women make up more than 38 per cent of people working individually on a self-employed basis, 17.7 per cent of proprietors of own businesses and farms and 46.3 per cent of those helping family members. In the self-employed sector, women are concentrated in the areas of educational, medical and social service provision, clothing manufacture, restaurant and hotel services, commerce and the repair of household articles.

Table 6.

Women and men working on a self-employed basis, by individual type of economic activity


Proportion, in percent

Women
Men
Women
Men





Total
64 544
102 287
38.7
61.3
Agriculture, hunting and forestry
1 742
3 836
31.2
68.8
Manufacturing industry
3 611
3 404
51.5
48.5
Construction
225
3 696
5.7
94.3
Automotive and motorcycle trade, technical servicing and repair
36
1 432
2.5
97.5
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of household articles
55 735
72 846
43.3
56.7
Hotels and restaurants
819
1 350
37.8
62.2
Transport
61
4 927
1.2
98.8
Financial activity
24
94
20.3
79.7
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers
66
302
17.9
82.1
Education
106
49
68.4
31.6
Health care and the provision of social services
87
99
46.8
53.2
Provision of communal, social and personal services
1 607
8 753
15.5
84.5
Domestic housekeeping services
159
1 045
13.2
86.8

Table 7

Women and men who are proprietors of their own businesses and peasant (farm) holdings, by individual type of economic activity




Proportion, in percent
Women
Men
Women
Men





Total
8 108
37 602
17.7
82.3
Agriculture, hunting and forestry
5 860
32 679
15.2
84.8
Manufacturing industry
514
1 089
32.1
67.9
Construction
46
340
11.9
88.1
Automotive and motorcycle trade, technical servicing and repair
22
358
5.8
94.2
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of household articles
784
1 364
36.5
63.5
Hotels and restaurants
429
533
44.6
55.4
Transport and communications
41
217
15.9
84.1
Financial activity
24
72
25.0
75.0
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers
47
125
27.3
72.7
Education
34
32
51.5
48.5
Health care and the provision of social services
31
73
29.8
70.2
Provision of communal, social and personal services
221
546
28.8
71.2

The proportion of women employed in unfavourable working conditions had declined slightly by 2000 and stood at an average of 26.7 per cent, but in traditionally “women’s” sectors it is significantly higher – 52 per cent in light industry, for example, and 50 per cent in the food industry. At the same time, the gap in wages between women and men continues to be significant and varies according to region, with men’s wages being from 30 to 90 per cent higher.

Table 8

Average wages of men and women, by type of economic activity

Type of economic activity
Average wage, in som

Women’s wages as a percentage of men’s wages
Women
Men






Total
Including, by type of activity:
964.6
1 427.5

67.6
Agriculture, hunting and forestry
569.8
670.1

85.0
Fish farming
476.5
661.0

72.1
Mining industry
1 787.0
2 480.2

72.1
Manufacturing industry
1 717.4
2 098.1

81.9
Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and hot water
1 682.3
1 797.9

93.6
Construction
1 528.5
1 835.2

83.3
Trading and repair of motor vehicles, household articles and articles for personal use
947.0
1 103.5

85.8
Provision of restaurant and hotel services
1 673.8
4 165.5

40.2
Transport and communications
1 826.5
1 743.4

104.8
Finance
3 324.7
4 447.7

74.8
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers
1 052.6
1 251.7

84.1
Public administration
1 703.0
1 858.6

91.6
Education
770.0
813.4

94.7
Health care and the provision of social services
577.0
717.8

80.4
Provision of communal, social and personal services
877.9
986.5

89.0

The results of a study conducted by UNFPA into the amounts of time spent on housework are arousing marked interest. In Kyrgyzstan, housework is to a significant extent women’s work since women devote on average four to five hours each day to housework, spending 19 per cent of each twenty-four-hour period on it. The time spent by men is less than five per cent and amounts to a little over one hour.

The types of housework carried out by men and women also follow different patterns. Men are keener on shopping for food (30 per cent of time spent on housework) and on carrying out household repairs (31 per cent). They devote 11 to 12 per cent of their time to children and grandchildren. The pattern of housework carried out by women is more varied and depends on the place of residence, the composition of the family and on the women’s employment. Working women in towns and cities spend 16 per cent of their housework time on shopping (on Sundays this proportion rises to 23.6 per cent). The remaining time (84 per cent) is spent on cooking (29 per cent), washing up (9 per cent), washing and ironing (14 per cent), housecleaning (12.7 per cent), taking care of children and grandchildren (10.4 per cent). For women in rural areas, shopping takes up two thirds of the time that it takes for women in towns and cities. At the same time, the amount of time spent on cooking, washing up, cleaning the area around the house and keeping the house warm is higher.

Female unemployment caused by economic factors is rising steadily. Thus, whereas in 1999 the level of unemployment among women stood at 8.9 per cent, by 2000 it was 9.5 per cent. 33,400 women, constituting 53.3 per cent of the total number of unemployed citizens, are registered as unemployed at State Employment Service offices, and of these, 15,000 unemployed women (45 per cent) live in rural areas. The large gulf in the level of unemployment between women and men is typical for all age groups but is most marked in the 30-34 age group (15.2 per cent as against 7.3 per cent). To a significant extent, female unemployment in Kyrgyzstan is related to the fact that enterprises which have acquired a labour surplus as a result of the downturn in production and of cuts in projects in the service sector are making women redundant without good grounds for doing so. In particular, 64 per cent of the total number of persons released from employment as a result of structural reforms in the economy have been women, who, together with persons of pensionable and pre-pensionable age, are the first to be affected by staffing cuts in enterprises and organizations or to leave voluntarily following extended periods of unpaid leave or employment on part-time terms.

The State Employment Service is currently applying a policy of active measures in the labour market to resolve issues surrounding the job placement and employment status of women, rather than restricting itself to passive measures, i.e. to paying out unemployment benefit. These include approaches such as promoting the development of self-employed activity (small loans programme), organizing training and retraining in occupations for which there is a need in enterprises and organizations in the region concerned and organizing publicly funded projects as forms of temporary employment for women. In this regard, statistics show that almost 50 per cent of the women who have undergone training are able to find a job. The Centre for the Support of Small Business and Promotion of Employment of Unemployed Citizens, which has operated in Bishkek since 2000, may be cited as an example here. 82 per cent of those working at the Centre are women who have undergone retraining and are employed in activities such as clothing manufacture, the production of pasta products, the vacuum packaging of foodstuffs, the workshop-based production of national costumes and the baking of bread.

The difficulty of solving the problems of women’s employment is compounded by the mass migration of people from rural areas to towns and cities. In connection with this, the employment service is introducing new forms of labour market regulation. Thus, a Temporary Job Placement Department, placing unemployed people in temporary jobs, and a Mobile Employment Service, providing services for unemployed people at their place of residence, have operated in Bishkek since 1997.

A category of “long-term unemployed” is currently being identified among unemployed citizens in the Kyrgyz Republic, and special work is being carried out with this group. In towns in the Chu region, “Jobseekers’ Clubs” are being run for them by the employment services. Practice has shown that the bulk of the people attending the clubs are women. The clubs provide assistance to long-term unemployed citizens in acquiring job-seeking skills and provide them with practical opportunities for putting the knowledge they have acquired to good use.

The National Young People’s Employment Exchange and its branch offices provide substantial assistance in helping young unemployed women to find jobs and in extending the range of information services available for young people. Thus, in 2002 alone, more than 1,500 people, including about 800 girls and young women, have contacted the Exchange, and 292 of these women have been placed in jobs. Help in establishing contacts with employers and in completing the task more promptly is also provided by the monthly job vacancy markets run by the young people’s employment exchanges in the Republic. About 50 per cent of the clients at job-vacancy markets are women.

However, providing occupational retraining and job placements will not solve the strategic task of achieving a gender balance in the employment sector. Frequently, the list of occupations to train adults for is geared primarily to “urban requirements” such as beautician, hairdresser, secretary/assistant, bookkeeper, and specialists in the clothing and food industries. It is obvious that for the majority of rural women occupations such as these are completely lacking in prospects. Moreover, the proposed choice of occupations in which to retrain maintains and reinforces the traditional distribution of labour in the various industries and the occupational segregation of women in such areas as the clothing industry, traditional handicrafts and the service sector.

Data showing the trends (1999-2002) in the number of women referred for training and in the number of women placed in jobs after training is presented in Appendix 1. It should be pointed out that the percentage of women referred for training remains consistently within the 59 to 60 per cent range. The maximum proportion of women placed in jobs after training has been 73.2 per cent, in 2001. However, in the Republic as a whole, in the first three months of 2002 alone more than 65 per cent of women had already been referred for occupational training, and of these, 77 per cent completed their training and were able to be placed in jobs.

The drastic decline in the formal sector’s share of the economy is a factor which reduces the opportunity for retraining programmes to exert a real influence in lowering the level of unemployment among women. Against this background, a proportion of women are taking the economic initiative and pouring into the informal labour market. This includes working in illegal sewing workshops, for example. The clothing industry has shown itself to be highly adaptable and flexible in liberalized market conditions: dozens of sewing workshops operate in the capital and a kind of specialization has emerged. “Shuttle traders” travel from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia for articles sewn in Kyrgyzstan. Clothing items produced by Kyrgyz women have squeezed out Chinese and Turkish products on the Central Asian markets.

However, government statistics do not take into account the number of citizens employed in this informal sector of the economy, and no representative scientific survey of the labour market has been conducted in the Republic.

One of the mechanisms for equalizing the economic opportunities for women and the real chances for increasing the level of employment among women is the granting of loans. As part of government programmes to develop enterprise and business initiative in order to improve the economic situation of women in the Republic, the following programme documents are being implemented:

• Programme of measures for the occupational retraining of government employees released from employment and for their integration in the processes of development of the Kyrgyz Republic, ratified by Government Regulation No. 368 of 23 July 2001.

• State programme for the development of enterprise in the Kyrgyz Republic for the period 2001-2003, ratified by Government Regulation No. 448 of 15 August 2001.

• State plan for the development of small towns and urban settlements in the Kyrgyz Republic, ratified by Government Regulation No. 843 of 31 December 2001.

Priority in these programmes is given to supporting entrepreneurs in high-altitude districts of the Republic, for example, by lowering the interest rates on the loans they receive. With support from the State Commission for the Development of Enterprise reporting to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, 156 women entrepreneurs were able to obtain financing for private projects in 2001 through various lines of credit, thereby accounting for 41.01 per cent of the total amount of credit supplied. Organizations such as the Kyrgyz Agricultural Finance Corporation, the Central Asian American Enterprise Support Fund, the Asian credit company “CrossRoads”, the German Development Bank KfW, FINCA-Kyrgyzstan and the Swiss association “Helvetas” are also involved in the granting of loans in Kyrgyzstan.

But the majority of credit lines attracted to Kyrgyzstan are often aimed at a distinct target group, for example, inhabitants of high-altitude districts or districts that have suffered from natural disasters, and, for this reason, investment resources for developing entrepreneurial activity among women remain inadequate.

Article 12. Equal access to medical services

The main outcomes of the reforms in the health-care sector over the 1996-2000 period have been: the restructuring of the network of systems providing medical aid, the establishment of a State policy on the supply of medicines, the introduction of compulsory medical insurance and of the institute of family medicine, the approval and introduction of new methods of financing using information technologies, the preparation of the health-care sector for eventual division between the “purchasers” and the “suppliers” of medical services based on market relations and the active involvement of the medical community and of the Kyrgyz population in the reform process. At the present time, plans have been drawn up for rationalising medical institutions for the period 2001-2003, based on axing institutions that duplicate the work of others, are relatively inefficient or fail to match up to modern requirements in terms of their technical equipment.

In addition to this, the level of financing of the health-care sector out of the national budget has fallen sharply in recent years from 3.7 per cent of GDP to 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2001. As a result, the volume of funds allocated from the State budget covers only 50 per cent of the sector’s actual requirements. The other half of the cost of medical services is in practice covered by the patient. The financial inability of many groups in the population (the disabled, pensioners and impoverished, large and partial families) to pay for these services is the main factor restricting access to medical services.

The introduction in the Republic of compulsory medical insurance will increase the availability of medical aid to the population. By 2002, 83.7 per cent of the population was already covered by compulsory medical insurance, which has established the preconditions for ensuring the social protection of nearly all vulnerable groups in the population.

By 2000, the birth rate in Kyrgyzstan had fallen to 19.7 per 1,000, from 23.6 per 1,000 in 1996, and the reduction in the number of births over this period was 35.9 per cent, with women currently giving birth to an average of 2.6 children. At the same time, relatively better-off women in towns and cities give birth to 70 per cent fewer children than their rural counterparts. The downward trend in the birth rate can also be traced by comparing age categories: whereas women between 60 and 64 years of age have an average of 5.0 children and those between 40 and 59 years of age 4.3 children, women between 30 and 39 years have on average only 3.0 children. Against the background of the marked reduction in the birth rate, the figures for infant mortality and mortality of women in childbirth remain alarmingly high.

Table 9

Infant mortality, by region (per 1,000 live births)


1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2 months
2002








Kyrgyz Republic
25.9
28.2
26.2
22.7
22.6
21.6
21.5
Batken
28.9
29.6
30.4
26.3
27.6
25.0
30.6
Jalal-Abad
24.2
27.8
21.3
19.4
18.3
18.8
19.2
Issyk-Kul
23.1
30.5
21.8
19.5
18.1
16.7
17.7
Naryn
22.5
28.9
21.2
18.3
18.5
22.0
25.4
Osh
30.2
29.6
32.2
27.7
25.5
24.0
19.9
Talas
20.7
29.0
19.2
23.1
23.1
20.2
20.3
Chu
17.0
19.8
20.1
16.4
19.4
16.9
17.4
Bishkek, city (city council)
30.3
30.4
29.0
23.8
27.5
27.4
29.1

Normal birth occurs in only 40.3 per cent of cases. In less prosperous regions (Talas and Batken) this figure has dropped to between 19 and 24 per cent. Although the level of maternal mortality fell in the period from 1990 to 2001 by 38.6 per cent and stands at 49.9, it is nonetheless almost 2.5 times the European average. Neonatal mortality has fallen in the last five years (1996 to 2001) and reached 21.6 per 1,000 births in 2001.

Table 10.

Maternal morality (per 100,000 live births)


1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001







Republic
65.0
76.4
54.7
45.9
46.5
49.9
Bishkek, city
82.8
138.7
53.1
78.0
91.07
38.5
Chu
25.1
54.0
27.5
35.3
36.5
74.9
Talas
19.1
44.8
40.7
20.5
43.3
40.0
Naryn
132.4
101.9
81.8
58.5
32.4
129.3
Issyk-Kul
103.8
169.7
47.7
58.4
59.9
70.1
Osh
50.9
60.4
51.4
30.0
30.0
33.9
Batken
32.2
31.3
Jalal-Abad
83.5
60.8
63.5
52.9
48.6
33.0

Among the leading causes of infant mortality are respiratory disorders, perinatal complications and infectious and parasitic diseases. A decline in the quality and accessibility of conventional medical services means that people are increasingly either turning to providers of traditional or folk medicine for help or else treating themselves.

While it is true that women in childbirth and neonates fall within a high-risk category, society and the State are failing to take adequate measures to reduce the risk to their lives and health to an acceptable level. High infant mortality is also caused by the fact that more than 60 per cent of families in rural areas are unable to meet children’s minimum requirements in terms of basic food products. The situation is similar in many urban families. In 2000, 6.6 per cent of children in Kyrgyzstan aged from one to six years were suffering from emaciation, with girls making up the highest proportion of underweight children observed among five-year-olds.

Health indicators for women of childbearing age have worsened by comparison with figures for the preceding period. Anaemia during pregnancy affects on average 54.7 per cent of women for the country as a whole, reaching between 70 and 90 per cent in the most socially and economically disadvantaged regions. Diseases of the urino-genital system were recorded among 13.5 per cent of women and gestosis among 5.7 per cent but in some regions these figures reach as high as 30 per cent (Talas). It is precisely gestosis, sepsis, abortions and haemorrhages that are the principal causes of maternal mortality. Another set of causes are early pregnancy, high natality and short birth intervals. To these must also be added unqualified or inadequate medical assistance, since, according to experts, many of the cases of maternal mortality could have been prevented. The break-up of the former system of medical care, the shortage of resources and the lack of transport are forcing a growing number of rural women to give birth at home.

The country has 890 obstetricians/gynaecologists and family planning service workers and health visitors, as well as more than 1,600 paediatricians, though the level of pay of medical personnel is one of the lowest in the public sector. The health service’s current resources cannot guarantee high-quality medical care for pregnant women, and its material and equipment resources are insufficient to meet demands currently placed on institutions providing specialized care for women. Unfortunately, the number of doctors does not guarantee the standard of a service. In this particular case, relative to its population of five million there are five times more doctors in Kyrgyzstan than in Denmark, but the standard of the medical service in Kyrgyzstan cannot possibly be compared with that of Denmark.

On the basis of the law on the reproductive rights of citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic which was adopted on 20 December 1999, the termination of pregnancy in specialized medical institutions is permitted as a method of family planning. These services are provided free of charge for some categories (students, impoverished women, etc.). Cases of illegal abortion are detected only after medical institutions have been approached following complications, and up to several dozen of these are recorded each year. Two women died from illegal abortion in 2001. In total, more than 15 to 20 thousand abortions are carried out each year. From 1996 to 2001 there was a very significant fall in the number of abortions per annum, from 24,187 to 15,933. But the fact that 10 per cent of abortions were carried out on women under 19 years of age is a cause for alarm.

Table 11.

Number of abortions carried out in Kyrgyzstan

1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001






24 187
21 671
19 481
17 890
15 933
15 979

Table 12.

Breakdown of abortions by type


1999
2000
2001





1.
Mini-abortions (control of menstrual cycle)
7 675
6 111
7 411
2.
Abortions up to 12 weeks
61.6
50.7
55.9


11 013
8 082
8 936
3.
Artificial abortions
41.3
39.9
36.8


7 382
6 358
5 877
4.
Terminations of pregnancy between 22 and 26 weeks
10.1
5.3
3.4


1 801
842
550
5.
Illegal abortions
0.2
0.3
0.1


31
46
12

Ministry of Health Decree No. 363 of 28 October 2000 ratified the National Programme for the Protection of Reproductive Health, under which joint programmes are being implemented with international organizations on protecting the reproductive health of the population. These include, for example, the TsARAK project “Protection of the health of the mother and child” (UNICEF), the projects “Establishment of a local infrastructure in the area of reproductive health and family planning”, “System for the supply and distribution of contraceptives” and “Development and dissemination of informational and educational materials on issues of reproductive health” (UNFPA), and Procter & Gamble’s programme on hygiene for teenage girls. Implementation of these programmes has brought about an increase in awareness among the population about the various methods of contraception, which has been reflected in a reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions in a number of regions. The results of monitoring by UNFPA indicate that 65.5 per cent of women in towns and cities and 53.9 per cent of women in rural areas use contraceptive devices. Unfortunately, a reduction has been observed in the volume of contraceptives supplied through international humanitarian aid channels, and this will actually diminish their use, with all the attendant consequences.

In order to implement measures to protect the reproductive health of women, existing normative documents have been revised to take into account WHO recommendations on the “Mother and Child” programme, and a programme for the period 2000-2004 has been prepared jointly with UNICEF on “Survival, development and protection of mother and child”. A national programme to combat acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal illnesses and anaemia has been adapted, and the State Programme for the Period 2001-2005 for the Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Diseases Transmitted by way of Injection, ratified by Government Decree No. 785 of 13 December 2002, has come into operation.

In total, 18.5 million dollars were spent between 1996 and 2000 on the “Manas” programme, which was directed toward reforming health care. It has been successful in improving some indicators, but, on the whole, the situation remains significantly worse than during Soviet times. In particular, the incidence of socially significant diseases, such as tuberculosis, iodine-deficiency-induced illnesses, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, is rising.

At the start of 2002, 6,284 people had tuberculosis, and nearly 43 per cent of them were women. Of individuals infected with HIV, 16 were women. The deterioration in the standard of medical care is being aggravated by the spread of poverty and the rise in alcoholism and drug addiction, which are taking on menacing proportions. Over the last three years alone, (1999-2001) the number of persons abusing alcohol and officially registered as such, more than 10 per cent of whom were women, grew by 10.8 per cent. Over the same period, the number of persons on the register of drug addicts grew by 10.9 per cent, and of these, 10.8 per cent were women. Of especial concern are the figures for the number of persons diagnosed for the first time as having an alcohol dependency. Over the three years their number increased by 276 per cent, and among women the increase was by 326 per cent.

The production and import of alcohol products (including illegal products), the trafficking of drugs through Kyrgyzstan and the spread of drugs have assumed proportions vastly in excess of those that existed in the past, but measures to combat them are often ineffective because of a certain amount of corruption and the lack of competence of government bodies. At the same time, analysis of the crime situation shows that a direct dependency exists between the level of alcoholism and drug addiction in society and the level of violence against women and the incitement of women to prostitution. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that not only is society becoming more aggressive toward its most vulnerable and defenceless sections, but the victims of alcoholism and drug addiction themselves are increasingly turning to crime.

Note must also be taken of the menacing situation that has developed in places of imprisonment in terms of the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis and STDs. In the women's colony (OP 36/2) alone, five of the 694 convicts were infected with HIV, 96 were suffering from venereal diseases and 11 had tuberculosis.

The Republic has a shortage of specialist literature and programmes on the subjects of establishing a healthy lifestyle, raising a family and family planning. In order to improve the situation in this area, work at the institutional level has been intensified. At the Kyrgyz Scientific Centre for Human Reproduction a department has been set up to provide medical and social assistance for young people on issues of sex education and health protection, and various centres have been opened for work with teenagers. A large number of non-governmental organizations are also working on this problem in different regions of the Republic. Worthy of special mention among these is the Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Kyrgyzstan, a non-governmental organization for professionals in the field.

As part of the reform of the education system, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic has begun work on drawing up educational standards, including a “healthy lifestyle” component. This component is being developed jointly with health care bodies and includes such subjects as “Establishing a healthy lifestyle”, “Ensuring the safety of everyday activities” and “Lessons in health”, which students in classes 1 to 12 will be taught for one hour per week (34 hours a year). In addition, in order to maintain and improve the health of schoolchildren and young people and to spread awareness among them about a healthy lifestyle, the “Healthy Schools” project was launched nationally, commencing in 2002. Under the project, secondary school teachers, school doctors, psychologists and educationalists will be trained or retrained for work on preventing drug addiction, smoking, alcoholism and HIV/AIDS/STDs, on involving parents and local communities in conducting information campaigns and various other actions and on helping to promote physical culture and sport.

Article 13. Social and economic benefits

State support is provided for women and men in Kyrgyzstan on the same general grounds, those of impoverishment and incapacity for work. The legislative basis of social support is the law on State financial assistance which was adopted in 1998. Those entitled to receive financial assistance include disabled persons, including children, who lack entitlement to pension provision, persons disabled since childhood and impoverished families (with account being taken of whether their income is lower than the guaranteed minimum level of consumption for each member of the family). Social support is provided in the form of State allowances (impoverishment allowances and social allowances), concessions for specific categories of citizens and social services (in-patient care in residential homes and out-patient services at home for people living alone and for elderly people). Work is being carried out in Kyrgyzstan on setting up a social passport system covering the entire population with the aims of establishing a reliable database on impoverished families and subsequently drawing up individual programmes for raising them out of poverty.

In Kyrgyzstan, where the 17.8 per cent of the population live in extreme poverty and 53.2 per cent in poverty, one citizen in ten receives State financial assistance and one family in three benefits from concessions of one kind or another. For example, 151,600 families, of which 2,800 are partial families comprising single mothers or fathers with between one and three children, receive an impoverishment allowance. Recipients of social benefits in the Republic number about 43,300, and include 168 heroine-mothers, 3,400 persons who have reached pensionable age and do not have a record of work and 17,900 disabled persons who lack entitlement to pension provision. The system for the provision of social concessions in the Republic remains very extensive, with more than 30 types of concession applicable to 36 categories of citizens, but from 2000 there will be an active move to streamline concessions and switch them to a targeted system. Impoverished families are given an allowance for heating, hot water, gas and electricity and are granted entitlement to medical services at concessionary rates. For example, 200,000 families were entitled to medical services at concessionary rates in 2000, which required expenditure from the budget amounting to 450 million som.

Under the law on State financial assistance, children are granted the following types of social benefits:

– for disabled children suffering from infantile cerebral paralysis - 300 per cent of the guaranteed minimum level of consumption (GMLC);

– for HIV-infected children or children suffering from AIDS - 225 per cent of the GMLC;

– for disabled children - 225 per cent of the GMLC;

– for children where there is a loss of provider – 150 per cent of the GMLC;

– for children who have lost both parents (full orphans) - 225 per cent of the GMLC.

As well as this, but taking into account an assessment of the family income (provided that the family’s average per capita income does not exceed the GMLC), children are granted the following allowances:

– a lump-sum payment on the birth of a child – 300 per cent of the GMLC;

– for children under 18 months - 100 per cent of the GMLC;

– for twins - 100 per cent of the GMLC;

– for triplets and higher multiple births - 150 per cent of the GMLC;

– a lump-sum monthly allowance for children – the total amount being the absolute difference between the GMLC and the family’s average per capita income.

Unfortunately, these are very small allowances since until 1 April 2000 the GMLC stood at 100 som, which was approximately equivalent to $US 2, and it has now been increased to 120 som. For comparison it should be pointed out that the real cost of the consumer goods basket in Kyrgyzstan in 2001 stood at approximately 1,200 som. Annex 2 presents data showing the trend (1999-2001) in the number of recipients of allowances for children among impoverished families and citizens in the Republic.

The introduction in Kyrgyzstan of a supplementary compulsory medical insurance scheme for the provision of medicines at the primary level began in August 2000. Reimbursing expenditure on medicines at the primary level promotes the economic availability of medicines to the population and functions as a market mechanism for lowering the prices of medicines.

From January 1999, the required age for receiving a pension was raised in Kyrgyzstan from 55 to 58 for women and from 60 to 63 for men. The rise is being implemented gradually, on an incremental basis, and is scheduled for completion by 2007. Under this arrangement, women in Kyrgyzstan will enjoy certain privileges: as before, they will retire five years earlier than men, and thus need a shorter insurance contribution record. Women living in high altitudes may retire 10 years earlier than the age generally fixed for retirement if they have an insurance contribution record of 12 years in high altitudes, have given birth to three or more children and have raised them until the age of eight. Normally, mothers who have given birth to five or more children and have raised them to the age of eight years need a 15-year insurance contribution record and may retire five years earlier.There are also concessions for the mothers of disabled children, notably that the pensionable age for this group is five years lower.

Table 13

Number of pensioners and average level of pension


1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000







Total number of pensioners
543 472
544 261
546 360
540 472
539 139
529 023
Of whom: women
318 146
310 894
322 286
318 675
326 138
331 581
men
225 326
233 367
224 074
221 797
213 001
197 442
Average level of pension, in som
197.03
246.92
307.01
377.70
385.40
462.00
Including: average for women
189.09
239.01
292.70
348.12
361.56
434.71
Average for men
208.23
257.46
327.59
420.13
421.87
507.84

The transition has begun from a distributive pension system to pension insurance based on the personal savings of each citizen. The level of the pension is determined on the basis of insurance principles, depending on contributions to a pension fund made by a working person during his/her working life. The average level of pensions for women is 15 to16 per cent lower than that for men, which can be explained by the lower level of wages and lower number of years worked by women. Women make up 63 per cent of all pensioners. In the view of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, it is essential that a gender analysis of pension legislation be carried out.

The legislative instruments providing for the rendering of State support to citizens incapable of work are the law on the social protection of disabled persons of 17 April 1991 with additions and amendments of 31 October 1998 and Government Regulation No. 281 of 15 May 1998 on improvement of the system of social protection for impoverished families and citizens. In accordance with these documents, disabled persons, irrespective of sex, but depending on the type and category of disability, and families who have disabled children under the age of 16, are granted concessionary rates on payments for public utilities, medicines and solid fuel supplies, and wheelchairs are issued free of charge to persons with disorders of the locomotor system.

For a number of years, however, applications to receive wheelchairs have in practice only been granted in 20 to30 per cent of cases. The comprehensive provision of wheelchairs for disabled persons is hampered by the lack of funding from the Republic’s budgetary resources.

One of the most important documents governing State policy toward disabled persons has been the National Programme of State Support for Disabled Persons, ratified by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic in 1999. This programme focussed on establishing conditions for the system of social welfare for disabled persons to ensure the achievement of genuine equity and equality for disabled persons and to resolve issues surrounding their social rehabilitation. At the present time, there are already 25 rehabilitation centres in operation.

The shortage of financial resources and the lack of awareness on the part of the services concerned of experience which has been acquired around the globe in solving social problems are hampering the effective development of new forms of social services in the Republic. Through cooperation with international charitable foundations and organizations, national organizations are seeking to implement joint projects for reforming social protection, and social welfare bodies are currently actively collaborating with the NGO sector and with charitable organizations in implementing social policy. For example, international donors, the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation and HIVOS support the operation of a network of 10 crisis centres for women, which provide women who been subjected to violence with free medical, psychological and legal assistance and, where necessary, with temporary shelter.

Measures to improve the targeting and level of social protection, to provide sound social protection for pensioners and to ensure that State social security payments are made promptly and in full have been included in the National Poverty Reduction Strategy for the Period 2003-2005, which is currently being drawn up.

Article 14. Rural women

The rural population accounts for two thirds of the population of Kyrgyzstan. 46.5 per cent of women are engaged in agriculture, with 31.2 per cent working on a self-employed basis. Women account for around 15 per cent of the owners of peasant farm holdings.

The national programme “Ayalzat” has implemented through its organizations in the regions, the Centres for Women’s Initiatives, a project to provide employment for women and to encourage women to become entrepreneurs. In 1999-2000, for example, a small loans programme was started up in rural areas for family businesses run by women. Special groups of impoverished and unemployed mothers and of mothers with many children have been established, for whom a system of financial support involving the granting of small loans has been used to expand income-generating activities and self-employment, to create additional jobs, to promote work from home and to encourage women to become entrepreneurs. The majority of the small loans taken out by women have been for producing bread and other bakery products and for producing sewn garments (including national costumes) and items of bed-linen, etc. A large number of women’s non-governmental organizations have also been working in the regions, making a distinct contribution to promoting entrepreneurial activity and farming and to solving employment problems for rural women through the provision of information and of training on gender, economic and legal issues.

Gender training in local authorities produces results which affect the daily lives of rural women. An example of this is provided by the Nurmanbet aiyl okmotu in the Chu district, where, following training, work on gender-based development was initiated. 2,279 women are resident in the aiyl-okmotu area, of whom 10 are in managerial posts, 110 work in the education system, five in the cultural field and 10 in the aiyl-okmotu administration; two women are aiyl-okmotu deputies (of a total of 13 deputies), and a women’s council has been set up. All the impoverished families have land holdings and for this reason the majority of women are engaged in agriculture. In the aiyl okmotu, there are two credit unions which primarily issue loans to single mothers and women from impoverished families. 158 women are members of the two women’s non-governmental organizations. The local NGO “Alga” has run, jointly with the authorities, a two-day seminar entitled “Life without violence”, and through the efforts of the women’s council 40 impoverished families have been provided with aid in the form of free medicines.

The agrarian land reforms which are underway in Kyrgyzstan have on the one hand made it possible to alleviate unemployment in the country by attracting hundreds and thousands of unemployed persons to peasant farms. On the other hand, as studies by international organizations (WB, DFID, UNIFEM) have shown, the economic opportunities for women have worsened somewhat. This is linked to the fact that despite the official willingness of social and economic institutions and organizations to introduce a market for land and to carry out radical land reforms, the actual day-to-day functioning of these organizations proceeds largely along former lines. The low level of legal awareness in the population and particularly the lack of understanding of the law on the private ownership of land are giving rise to additional difficulties and costs in implementing the agrarian land reforms. The traditional mentality of villagers, characterized by paternalism and collectivist values, is coming into conflict with free-market values, which have not as yet developed fully, such as the sense of being one’s own boss and the orientation toward commercial success.

The conflict between these values, set against the backdrop of the briefness of the period of reforms, is leading to the adoption of “double standards” of thinking and behaviour, which are particularly marked where gender attitudes and gender relations are concerned.

As has been shown by a study assessing the needs of rural women for land reform which was carried out in spring 2002 by the Association for the Support of Women Entrepreneurs with the support of UNIFEM, women are unaware of the violation of their rights to land ownership and have no mechanisms for, or traditions of, opposing discrimination on grounds of sex with regard to economic rights. Indirectly, the ratio of the sexes among heads of households provides evidence of this:

Table 14

Heads of households


Female heads of household
Male heads of household
Region
(as percentage)
(as percentage)



Batken

7.9
92.1
Jalal-Abad
18.1
81.9
Issyk-Kul
8.5
91.5
Naryn
5.1
94.9
Osh
24.5
75.5
Talas
4.1
95.9
Chu
15.7
84.3
Bishkek
16.1
83.9

The low level of gender sensitivity combined with the influence of traditionalist public opinion are factors determining the particularly vulnerable economic status of divorced, widowed, unmarried and disabled women. However, there is as yet no reliable statistical or other representative data on the implementation in Kyrgyzstan of the economic rights of women. The agricultural census which is starting this year would appear to present a unique opportunity for studying this problem. Unfortunately, the census questionnaire, which was drawn up by the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic, does not include a gender component in a range of vital economic indicators.

On the whole, a significant change is taking place in the countryside as regards labour: the distribution of land into private ownership is increasing the level of employment and the workload of women in the family, and work within the family structure is increasingly appearing to replicate the past. A return to agricultural production based on unmechanized family labour is creating the conditions for a revival of paternalistic arrangements and values. The extended family, large numbers of children and the consequent pivotal role of the woman in the family are once again gaining in importance. These are factors conducive to reinforcing the traditions and customary law of Muslims (adat). In such a situation, women risk losing all the gains made in terms of their rights and not obtaining any benefit from the land reforms. Changes in the economic and social position of women are creating an urgent need for institutionalized assistance in obtaining equal access to land resources and real estate.

In this way, the rules of customary law (adat) are being re-established among the population not because of inertia or the dominance of traditional gender stereotypes but as a result of the objective recreation of conditions and criteria for organising the jobs women do and the conditions under which they live. At the same time, the consciousness of rural women is, on the whole, typified by a lack of serious thought about the subject of land reform and women’s involvement in it, and discussions on the rights of women in land reform are correspondingly outmoded. As a result, the lack of a clear understanding by women of their own needs and requirements in the course of land reform is producing a lack of clear expectations in their awareness of land reform.

Women need backing for their family businesses through long-term loan schemes (at realistic rates). Many women who are engaged in farming or other types of economic activity in the countryside are not in a position to take out loans, the interest rates and repayment terms for which would be realistic for their small farming businesses. Nor do they possess any property which could provide security for the issue of a bank loan. Thus, they are in a kind of vicious circle: in order to get their business on its feet, they need capital. But in order to obtain a loan as a vital resource for developing the business, they need to have sufficiently substantial material assets.

It should be noted that although international organisations and banks have actively been making loans available for agriculture all these years, the rural enterprise small loans scheme functions more effectively. International organisations like FINCA-Kyrgyzstan (USAID) have enabled thousands of citizens of Kyrgyzstan, especially women, to develop their own business initiatives and to create jobs for themselves. However, the financial support that is provided by similar credit organisations for the most severely impoverished strata of the population merely allows them to develop survival strategies.

A small loans scheme is also being introduced in the Republic for unemployed citizens and its principal aim is to encourage a growing number of unemployed persons, including those in rural areas, to become entrepreneurs. Since the start of 2002 the small loans centres have already issued small loans totalling 5.5 million som, and 52 per cent of the recipients of the small loans have been women. Annex 3 presents data showing the trend (1999-2002) in the issue of small loans to women across the Republic’s regions.

International organisations also use grant schemes in order to increase the level of employment among the population. Under the UNDP project “Supporting the Potential of Women’s Organisations”, 46 projects, submitted predominantly by rural women’s organisations, have won grants totalling $US 141,390,000. This project was designed to assist in attracting women into the market economy, to encourage them to set up their own businesses, to establish jobs for women and to improve their living conditions, especially in rural areas.

Article 15. Equality before the law and civil law

Women in Kyrgyzstan have equal access to legal services. Women may obtain legal aid free of charge from specialized social services, i.e. crisis centres and shelters, as well as through a variety of centres established by non-governmental organizations for the provision of legal aid. Consideration is currently being given to the idea of establishing an institute of social advocacy, based on the model of universities’ law clinics, the aim of whose activities would be to provide free legal aid to vulnerable groups of the population, including women.

In accordance with ILO Convention No. 97 concerning Migrant Workers, countries of the CIS, as members of the International Labour Organization, grant women migrants the right to be joined by their family members.

To date, the countries which have most welcomed our citizens working in them are the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan (longstanding links, absence of a language barrier, etc.). However, in order to protect their internal labour markets from a large influx of foreign workers, these countries have introduced quotas and permits granting foreign citizens the right to work. Unfortunately, some of our citizens, including women, who are resident in Russia and Kazakhstan are working or are involved in entrepreneurial activity illegally, frequently without registering, obtaining permits or notifying official bodies (administration of internal affairs, tax agencies, etc.).

The form of migration most characteristic of modern Kyrgyzstan is that from rural areas to the cities, and this serves as one of the most important indicators of restructuring and market reforms in the economy. Such a population shift is caused by workers leaving the agrarian sector, where there is a surplus of labour, and switching to other types of activity. Although the occupations of internal migrants from villages and small towns do not always match the market requirements of large cities, in certain areas they may create competition and promote the development of entrepreneurial activity in the Republic.

Internal population migration has highlighted problems such as the difficulties of finding a job because of a lack of the required qualification in a particular specialization, of living in a new place and of registering for a place of residence. All this fosters growing pressure in the labour market, worsening unemployment and the creation of unsanitary conditions in places where people accumulate in large numbers, etc.

The main reasons for people leaving their permanent place of residence are: a desire to find work or change jobs (33.6 per cent of men), reasons of a personal or family nature (29.4 per cent of women) and return to previous place of residence after studying.

Table 15

Reasons for population migration in Kyrgyzstan

Including
Total (both sexes)
Men
Women




In connection with work
29.2
33.6
25.7
Reasons of a personal and family nature
25.3
20.2
29.4
In connection with study
18.0
19.3
16.9
Return to previous place of residence
17.7
17.7
17.7
Because of deteriorating interethnic relations
0.1
0.1
0.2
Because of the deteriorating crime situation
0.1
0.0
0.1
Due to economic circumstances
0.9
0.9
0.8
Due to environmental/climatic conditions
0.5
0.4
0.7
Other reasons
8.2
7.7
8.5

The migratory behaviour of the population depends largely on its sex/age composition. In the Republic as a whole, women are more frequently involved in movements between regions than men, with the proportion of women among incoming migrants standing at 57 per cent and the proportion among outgoing migrants 55 per cent, which is evidence of the greater mobility of women.

Table 16

Migrants in 2001, by sex

Régions
Incoming migrants

Outgoing migrants

Net migratory inflow/outflow
Total
Of whom
Total
Of whom

Total
Of whom
Men
Women
Men
Women

Men
Women












Batken
678
307
371

1 495
696
799

817
389
428
Jalal-Abad
981
421
560

2 542
1 301
1 241

1 561
880
681
Issyk-Kul
809
382
447

2 516
1 164
1 352

1 687
782
905
Naryn
1 377
612
765

2 538
1 160
1 378

1 161
548
613
Osh
1 448
658
790

1 890
795
1 095

442
137
305
Talas
592
274
318

1 277
581
696

685
307
378
Chu
7 100
3 106
3 994

4 912
2 014
2 898

2 188
1 092
1 096
Bishkek city council
8 587
3 716
4 871

4 883
2 249
2 634

3 704
1 467
2 237

In all the Republic’s regions the migratory outflow consists principally of women, with the exception of Jalal-Abad, which is losing mainly men. The Chu region and the city of Bishkek show a net population inflow, with the Chu region acquiring equal numbers of men and women. It should be pointed out that women make up nearly 61 per cent of the net migratory inflow into Bishkek city.

Article 16. Equality in marriage and family law

Official statistics in Kyrgyzstan group together victims of all types of crimes without separating out the number of victims of violent crimes in the family. However, according to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, over a three-year period, murders and the infliction of serious physical injuries in the domestic environment alone consistently accounted for more than 15 per cent of all recorded crimes[2]. On the initiative of non-governmental organizations, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic has drawn up a series of programmes providing for a change in the way in which statistics are recorded, included in which will be the recording of cases of violence in the home. Statistical data from the crisis centres and shelters shows that of the nearly 29,300 women and girls who approached them for help in the period 1997-2001, more than 50 per cent had experienced violence in the family.

Violence in the home remains a highly concealed act. The mentality of Kyrgyz women can in the majority of cases be summed up by the maxim – don’t wash your dirty linen in public. Women who become victims of violent relationships within the family try to solve their problems without turning to the law-enforcement agencies. One of the causes of such behaviour is women’s limited experience of the law and their lack of awareness of their rights and of the mechanism for exercising them. For this reason, the total number of dysfunctional families held on police records as at 1 April 2002 in the Republic as a whole stood at just 881, even though as many as 10,000 police callouts to family incidents are recorded annually. The question of whether there is a link between crimes committed by women and systematic violence which they have suffered in the family or at work has not yet been studied.

There is no specific criminal legislation in Kyrgyzstan regulating relations in the sphere of violence in the home. It is not assigned to a special category and is included under domestic violence which as a criminological concept covers a wide range of violent acts, or acts carrying the threat of violence, committed by people in defined kinship, marital, neighbourhood and possibly friendship relationships. The lack of a clear definition of the term “violence in the home” and of specific indicators for measuring it prevents the monitoring of changes in the extent, forms and circumstances of violence in the home and on the whole renders analysis and evaluation difficult.

Criminal, civil and administrative legislation are currently applied in cases of violence in the home. While a charge may be brought by the internal affairs branch (police), the public prosecutor’s office, the court and the victim, the criminal investigation is conducted by the State. There are no special State services for providing support to women victims of violence, but crisis centres’ legal services have been used in this capacity recently.

The doctrine that the State is responsible solely for the activity of public authorities but not for the actions of private individuals is gradually dying away in Kyrgyzstan. The international principle of “complicity”, which imposes responsibility on a State which has been unable to prevent or suppress a violation of human rights, whether in the public or the private sphere, is being introduced.

In this connection, a group of non-governmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan, the “Diamond” Association, the Association of Independent Academic Lawyers and the Institute for Equal Rights and Opportunities, prepared a draft law on measures for social and legal protection from violence in the family. It regulates relations with regard to the social and legal protection of victims of family violence and also defines the preventive action to be taken by persons in order to prevent violence in the family.

Those drafting the law proceeded on the assumption that criminal law, in fulfilling its punitive function, is generally oriented first and foremost toward punishment. Application of the law in practice shows that in order to overcome violence in the family a blanket criminal-law response to facts of violence is not enough, since the interests of the family as a whole are in the balance. For example, when a case is brought to court and the person using violence convicted, a family is sometimes deprived of its breadwinner and moves from one difficult situation to another. Criminal law also fails to provide for the fact that the victims may wish to preserve family relations. Existing criminal legislation therefore does not provide the flexibility required in the choice of measures to suppress violence in the home.

The law defines the basic forms of violence in the family – physical, psychological and sexual, with sexual violence being assigned for the first time to a separate category. Among the innovations must be mentioned the broadening of the concept of family also to include persons cohabiting (in a de facto marriage), as well as relations residing permanently together with family members, and the introduction by those who drafted the law of the concept of dependent family member, i.e. a family member who is materially dependent because of old age, disability or sickness on other members of the family.

Another new element reflected in the draft law is the creation of mechanisms, based on compliance with international standards, for providing aid to family members who have been victims of violence. These are measures specifically for suppressing violence in the family – protective orders. In order to combat family violence systematically and effectively, the draft law provides for an integrated approach which is implemented by combining the efforts of the law-enforcement agencies, the courts, State and social organizations, general educational and medical institutions and social services.

Discussion of the draft law, involving the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, Labour and Social Welfare, the office of the Procurator General, the Secretariat of the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, an international expert, an OSCE representative and a range of non-governmental organizations, has made it possible to highlight certain shortcomings and factors which had not been allowed for. The draft law is currently being finalized and introduced in the Republic’s Parliament.

In order to introduce the draft law, a rule on legislative (public) initiatives, contained in Article 64 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, which calls for the gathering of 30,000 citizens of the Republic, has been implemented.

Appendix No. 1

Data on the number of women sent for training and placed in jobs after training in 199-2002 in Kyrgyzstan

Name of region
1999

2000

2001

January-February 2002
Sent for training
Number of women placed in jobs after training
As % of number of women trained

Sent for training
Number of women placed in jobs after training
As % of number of women trained

Sent for training
Number of women placed in jobs after training
As % of number of women trained

Sent for training
Number of women placed in jobs after training
As % of number of women trained
Total
Women
As % of total

Total
Women
As % of total

Total
Women
As % of total

Total
Women
As % of total
























Kyrgyz Republic
6 460
3 912
60.6
1 913
48.9

8 658
5 169
59,7
2 582
50.0

8 157
4 871
59.7
3 566
73.2

1 300
779
59.9
409
52.5
Bishkek, city
1 361
1 014
74.5
517
51.0

1 894
1 412
74,6
813
57.6

1 953
1 433
73.4
1 279
89.3

331
239
72.2
184
77.0
Jalal-Abad
772
462
59.8
168
36.4

993
550
55.4
256
46.5

1 033
606
58.7
441
72.8

215
100
46.5
52
52.0
Issyk-Kul
507
319
62.9
81
25.4

545
343
62.9
149
43.4

564
283
50.2
152
53.7

20
0
0.0
30

Naryn
115
60
52.2
39
65.0

201
121
60.2
16
13.2

240
138
57.5
67
48.6

10
9
90.0
4
44.4
Osh
1 806
853
47.2
321
37.6

1 946
932
47.9
334
35.8

1 693
875
51.7
407
46.5

228
116
50.9
14
12.1
Batken






612
269
44.0
86
32.0

572
246
43.0
142
57.7

74
32
43.2
14
43.8
Talas
252
129
51.2
63
48.8

294
134
45.6
857
639.6

384
175
45.6
89
50.9

50
13
26.0
8
61.5
Chu
1 647
1 075
65.3
724
67.3

2 173
1 408
64.8
71
5.0

1 718
1 115
64.9
989
88.7

372
270
72.6
103
38.1

Apendix 2

Data on the number of recipients of child allowances for impoverished families and citizens in the period 1999-2001 throughout the Republic

Name of regions
Number of families receiving child allowances

Of which with

Twins under 18 months
Triplets under 18 months
Children under 18 months
Children from 18 months to 16 years
1999
2000
2001

1999
2000
2001
1999
2000
2001
1999
2000
2001
1999
2000
2001

















Bishkek, city
2 255
2 417
2 290

62
33
50
18
0
6
459
584
508
3 946
4 284
3 903
Chu
5 364
4 978
4 579

68
32
46
6
0
0
884
867
820
13 389
12 977
11 943
Talas
8 033
9 842
9 592

58
41
39
3
0
0
1 494
2179
2 215
21 786
26 720
24 244
Naryn
18 263
17 816
16 609

51
67
74
0
0
1
4 050
5155
4 527
50 005
46 596
42 270
Issyk-Kul
7 472
9 897
8 636

25
68
98
3
3
3
1 319
1976
2 041
21 912
27 130
24 071
Osh
64 323
53 935
47 789

523
174
152
15
0
0
17 787
13775
12 118
189 038
158 536
137 178
Batken

14 732
16 284


56
72

0
3

3272
3 593
0
43 724
47 672
Jalal-Abad
42 610
42 924
43 376

304
172
160
12
0
6
8 187
9 641
9 002
127 866
129 878
128 750
Total for Republic
148 320
156 541
149 155

1 091
643
691
57
3
19
34 180
37 449
34 824
427 942
449 845
420 031

Apendix 3

Data on the issue of small loans for the period 1999 - 2002 throughout the Republic


1999

2000

2001

January-February 2002

Total
Name of region
Number of people receiving small loans
Total amount in som (000s)

Number of people receiving small loans
Total amount in som (000s)

Number of people receiving small loans
Total amount in som (000s)

Number of people receiving small loans
Total amount in som (000s)

Number of people receiving small loans
Total amount in som (000s)
Total
Women
As % of total
Total
Women

As % of total
Total
Women
As % of total
Total
Women
Aa %
of
total
Total
Women
As % of total
Total
Women

As % of total
Total
Women
As % of total
Total
Women
As % of total
Total
Women
As % of total
Total
Women
As % of total

































Kyrgyz Republic
1 377
700
50.8
2 838
1 468

51.7
3 423
2 013
58.8
12 435
7 221.7

58.1
4 215
2 364
56.1
22 036.1
12 545

56.9
348
191
54.9
2 417.2
1 397

57.8
9 363
5 268
56.3
39 725.8
22632
57.0
Bishkek, city







363
223
61.4
2 412.9
1 471.9

61.0
1 123
575
51.2
8 015.7
4 488.8

56.0
75
53
70.7
662.5
463.7

70.0
1 561
851
54.5
11 091.1
6 424.4
57.9
Jalal-Abad
372
175
47.0
668.5
300.0

44.9
756
403
53.3
1 847.3
930.0

50.3
428
206
48.1
1 768.5
746.00

42.2
30
6
20.0
125.0
30.0

24.0
1 586
790
49.8
4 409.3
2 006.0
45.5
Issyk-Kul
172
123
71.5
292.0
209.0

71.6
157
81
51.6
423.0
243.0

57.4
161
116
72.0
926.0
696.0

75.2
16
12
75.0
144.0
108.0

75.0
506
332
65.6
1 785.0
1 256.0
70.4
Naryn
88
37
42.0
419.0
166.5

39.7
372
192
51.6
1 726.2
865.8

50.2
389
196
50.4
1 742.2
884.7

50.8
7
2
28.6
31.5
9.0

28.6
856
427
49.9
3 918.9
1 926.0
49.1
Osh
394
174
44.2
876.0
487.0

55.6
1 053
669
63.5
3 260.8
2 078.0

63.7
1 149
713
62.1
4 496.3
2 845.0

63.3
137
73
53.3
699.5
404.0

57.8
2 733
1 629
59.6
9 332.6
5 814
62.3
Batken







48
39
81.3
120.0
97.5

81.3
396
229
57.8
1 392.5
785.0

56.4
28
12
42.9
192.5
62.5

32.5
472
280
59.3
1 705.0
945.0
55.4
Talas
351
191
54.4
582.0
305.6

52.5
600
369
61.5
1 952.3
1 200.7

61.5
344
210
61.0
2 037.5
1 243.6

61.0
35
19
54.3
335.0
181.8

54.3
1 330
789
59.3
4 906.8
2 931.7
59.7
Chu







74
37
50.0
692.5
334.8

48.3
225
119
52.9
1 657.4
856.1

51.7
20
14
70.0
227.2
138.0

60.7
319
170
53.3
2 577.1
1 328.9
51.6

Note : The main types of activity of women who have taken out small loans are : clothing production, folk handicrafts, commerce, public catering, consumer service, agriculture.


[1] « Trafficking in women and children ».– International Organization for Migration.– 2000.

[2] Report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic for the period 1998-2000.


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