COBATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND POVERTY TOGETHER IN KYRGYZSTAN

OVERVIEW

Over the past decades with the development of human rights, violence against women is
understood as a violation of womens human rights and that it constitutes a form of genderbased discrimination. According to the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against
Women, 1993, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, 1979, every Member State has to develop legislation on violence against women. In
addition, international community has identified eight main development goals in the Millennium
Development Goals that should be achieved by 2015, and one the of the goals to be achieved is
eradication of poverty. Correspondingly, many pieces of legislation have been developed in
Kyrgyzstans national legislation with regards to domestic violence and poverty. This paper
analyses the current state of domestic violence and poverty in Kyrgyzstan and its correlation,
and the extent to which domestic legislation has been effective in addressing these issues. The
paper proposes policy recommendations to deal with the challenges Kyrgyzstan has encountered
in the fight with violence against women and reduce the scale of poverty in the country.

INTRODUCTION
Kyrgyzstan, as a member of international treaties that promote gender equality and
development, has implemented various legal norms and law enforcement mechanisms in its
domestic legislation in order to combat domestic violence and poverty. However, despite to this
fact, the current situation in the country in regards to these issues requires new interventions,
since the

domestic violence and poverty are increasing according to the data provided by

international organizations.

The purpose of the paper is to prove that the State has to take

additional measures with respect to the issues of domestic violence and poverty in order to

COBATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

and provide appropriate measures. Currently, a number of studies have been conducted in
AND POVERTY TOGETHER IN
Kyrgyzstan on domestic violence, and they showed that problem of domestic violence is very
wide spread. According to National
Statistical Committee survey 70% of female and 66% of male
KYRGYZSTAN
combat it. There is a need to take into consideration the interconnectedness of these two issues

citizens recognize that domestic violence is a real problem existing in the Kyrgyz society (The
consortium of Womens Non-Governmental Associations, 2010, p. 20). In addition, one third of

POLICY PAPER

the population of Kyrgyzstan lives below the poverty line, thus becoming very current and
important issue that should be addressed by the State (World Bank, 2010).

Prepared by the Forum of Womens NGOs of Kyrgyzstan to the Government of Kyrgyzstan

This paper is designed to address the topic of violence against women and in particular domestic
violence and its correlation with poverty in Kyrgyzstan. It argues that inclusion of gender-specific
analysis in planning and implementing poverty reduction programs in the sphere of employment

and financing in Kyrgyzstan will result in more effective interventions. This paper will provide
conceptual and strategic recommendations for long term and targeted interventions by the
Government of Kyrgyzstan, the Parliament, the Government and Ministry of Labor and Ministry
of Social protection, the Ministry of Finance, National Bank of Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR), and other
banks and micro-credit institutions, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Internal Affairs and other
targeted ministries and institutions.
The goals of the paper are:
-

Provide evidences that domestic violence and poverty are contemporary issues that

should be address by the Government of Kyrgyzstan

Provide evidence of inter-relations between domestic violence

domestic violence on women, their families in regards to development

Develop policy recommendations to the Government of Kyrgyzstan

and poverty, impact of

This paper is prepared by Forum of Womens NGOs of Kyrgyzstan working on domestic violence
and development, which is based in Kyrgyzstan.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN KYRGYZSTAN

Violence against women is considered be one of the main threats to social and economic
development (WHO, 2005, p.3). Firstly, the problem of violence was used by the United Nations
General Assembly, when it

adopted a resolution 40/36 on violence against women

in 1985

(UN,1985, para. 10). Later, in 1986 the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
also adopted a resolution 1986/18 that recognized violence against women grave violation of
the rights of women (ECOSOC, 1986, para.2).

In 1992 the Committee on the Elimination of

Discrimination against Women has adopted General Recommendation 19, which referred that
violence against women

is violence that is

disproportionately directed against a woman

because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately (CEDAW, 1992). It includes
acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and
other deprivations of liberty.
Later, after the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, where
it recommended the States to eliminated violence in the private lives of women (UN, 1993, para.
20). In 1995 during the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Beijing Platform for Action was
adopted and it identified domestic violence as one of forms of violence against women, that
has been a persistent problem throughout recorded history and is regarded as a violation of the
rights and fundamental freedoms of women (UN, 1995, para. 113).

In 2000 the General

Assembly called states to combat all forms of violence against women and to implement the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in the Millennium
Declaration (UN, 2000). It has been identified that violence against women is associated with
number of social conditions which includes poverty, gender inequality, maternal and child
mortality, lack of education and etc.(WHO, 2005, p.4).

The Beijing platform of Action adopted during the Fourth World Conference in 1995, became for
the Government of The Kyrgyz Republic the base document for realization of the national policy
in maintenance of gender equality. As a result, the country decided to accept special laws, legal
standard and national plans directed on achievement of the gender equality. Kyrgyzstan had
ratified Convention on Elimination of All form of Violence against Women in 1996 as a result of
the powerful upsurge of activity of representatives of a wide range of state and public structures,
especially inspired by the events of the Beijing World Conference on Women (The consortium of
Womens Non-Governmental Associations, 2010, p. 34). The same year, 1996, by the Resolution
of President became the Year of Women. These mechanisms established Kyrgystans obligation
to address violence against women through national policies and legislation. In 2002 Kyrgyzstan
ratified the Optional Protocol of CEDAW, thus giving a right to its citizens to write petitions to the
CEDAW Committee (CEDAW, 2012).
Thus, new provisions have been incorporated into national legislation on protection of women
from domestic violence. Relevant provisions can be found in the Constitution, Criminal Code,
Administrative Responsibility Code, etc. 1 The main law that is specialized in domestic violence is
the Law On Social-Legal Protection from Domestic Violence this law is intended to protect the
person being abused, primarily through the issue of a protection order (KR, 2003).
However, despite to the fact that Kyrgyzstan has ratified CEDAW and provided relevant changes
in the legislations, the actual state of affairs of women

requires improvement.

It has been

reported in the Human Rights Watch Memorandum, that protective orders provided by law are
not enforced, and that

great numbers of women and girls in Kyrgyzstan have experienced

and continue to experience these serious violations of their most fundamental human rights
( HRW, 2008, p.2). At the review session of the report provided by Kyrgyzstan, the CEDAW
Committee requested from the Kyrgyz Government to take special measures eliminate violence
against women (CEDAW, 2008). More recently after the country visit in Kyrgyzstan, Rashida
Manjoo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women,

its causes and

consequences, has stated in her report that domestic violence is widespread and on the rise
(the UN, 2010, p.8). She has also stated that there are not reliable and detailed statistics
available that indicated the domestic violence in the country (UN, 2010, p.8).

POVERTY IN KYRGYZSTAN
The Beijing platform of Action that has been discussed above also identified an eradication of
poverty as current problem of international community. It has also noted that poverty is a burden
that lies heavy on women, and eradication of poverty was listed as one of 12 most important

1 The Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic was adopted on 5 May 1993 (the wording adopted through the referendum of 23 October 2007) The Labor
Code was adopted on 4 August 2004
The Family Code was adopted on 30 August 2003
The Criminal Code was adopted on 1 October 1997
The Law of the Kyrgyz Republic on Socio-Legal Protection from Domestic Violence was adopted on 25 March 2003

tasks that

require specific actions on State governments, international community and civil

society (UN, 1995, para. 47).

Poverty was defined as a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It
means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to
feed and cloth a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to
grow ones food or a job to earn ones living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity,
powerlessness and exclusion of

individuals,

households and communities.

susceptibility to violence, and it

often implies living on marginal or fragile environments,

without access to clean water or sanitation (UN Statement, 1998).

It means

Poverty has been identified

as one of the eight goals of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and all UN
member states have come to an agreement that they will achieve these eight goals by 2015.
Kyrgyzstan has gained its independence with the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991.The transition
period from 1991 till 1995 was characterized by hyperinflation, rising unemployment, falling
real income and rising poverty (World Bank, 2003). However, after 1996 the economy and the
GDP of the country stared growing, but the growth was not even (ILO, 2008, p.21). Kyrgyzstan
has been undertaking different reforms in order to increase living standard of the its population
and decrease poverty, these reforms were taken in number of areas such as denationalization
and privatization, liberalization of prices and foreign trade, industrial reforms, agrarian reform,
structural reforms in health care and education, public administration (IMF, 2007, p.4). As a
result of these reforms Kyrgyzstan was able to

strengthen its social and economic potential.

However, despite to this reforms and progress made till now, Kyrgyzstan continues facing high
rate of poverty. According to the statistics data provided by the World Bank by 2010

33.7

percent of the population of Kyrgyzstan lived below the poverty line (World Bank, 2010).
Moreover, the overall poverty rate declined up till to 31.7% in 2008, however, increased back in
2010 (IMF, 2012, p.30).
Women are accounting the majority of pensioner or holding profession in education or health
care sector, where the salary or retirement pension

are below substantive minimum, which

makes up women the majority of population of Kyrgyzstan living in poverty (UNDP, 2011, p.13).
Another research called Feminization of poverty

carried out by UNDP provided data proving

that poverty rate is higher among women (UNDP, 2006, p.51).

THE RELATIONSHIP OF POVERTY TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The reasons and causes of domestic violence are complex and they are interrelated with social
and cultural factors, mainly rooted in unequal distribution of power between men and women.
These factors can be socioeconomic forces, the family institution where power relations are
enforced, fear of and control over female sexuality, belief in the inherent superiority of males,
and legislation and cultural sanctions that have traditionally denied women and children
independent legal and social status (UNICEF, 2000, p.7).

an

Shortage of economic resources

increases vulnerability of women to violence. The relationship of availably of economic resources

and domestic violence is interdependent and interrelated. Women who experience violence face
more challenges in climbing out the poverty and likewise women without economic resources
finds it hard to escape from abusive relationship.(UNICEF, 2000, p.8).

UNICEF has identified following economic factors as factors that can perpetuate domestic
violence:
-

Womens economic dependence on men

Limited access to cash and credit

Discriminatory laws regarding inheritance, property rights, use of communal lands, and
maintenance after divorce or widowhood

Limited access to employment in formal and informal sectors

Limited access to education and training for women (UNICEF, 2000, p.7).

As it was mentioned above, as economic factor can be the cause of the cause of continues of
violence, the violence can bring up socio-economic cost. The study carried out by the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) in Latin American countries provided list of possible
economic costs. The cost can be subcategorized in:
-

Direct: psychological counseling and medical treatment, police services, costs imposed
on the criminal justice system, housing and shelters, social services;

Economic multiplier effects: decreased labour market participation, deduced productivity

on the job, lower earnings, increased absenteeism, intergenerational productivity impacts
via grade

repetition and lower education attainment of children, decreased investment and saving
(Buvinic et al, 1999, p.13).

Therefore, gender based violence is very closely related to poverty and development. Declines
in the economy increases poverty, which may increase the violence (Irish Joint Consortium on
Gender Based Violence, 2010, p.1). Correspondently, as a result of violence health, well-being
and productivity of women becomes worse that leads to additional expenses, loss of income and
may lead to poverty and obstruct from development.

In Kyrgyzstan most of the efforts with regards to domestic violence are aimed in separating
abused women from her abuser, like the Law that provides protective order. However, there is no
guarantee that women will be able to economic independent in order to provide herself and her
children shelter, food or healthcare if needed. It is worthy to note, in Kyrgyzstan there are only 13
crisis centers and 2 shelters per 5,500,000 people within the country (Crisis Centers of
Kyrgyzstan, 2007). Some shelters receive partial funding from government, however there are
none fully governmental shelters and crisis centers. The majority of them are l funded by
international organization and private donations.

Therefore, reducing of risk of violence without long-term financial sustainability will not be
effective. Likewise, poverty reduction interventions that are focused only on

securing

basic

human needs like governmental benefits, housing, education without overlooking securing
women from abuser will be unsuccessful, considering the fact that the majority of people living
under poverty in Kyrgyzstan are women. It is important for the policy-makers to calculate the
costs of violence and incorporate preventive measure that will economically empower women,
thus these measure will increase womens independence from the abusive relationship and it will
increase the ability to work and earn money, which will lead to decline of poverty.
Below are the recommendation provided by our organizations to the Government of Kyrgyzstan,
it believe that if the measures from the recommendations will be realized, it will benefit to the
whole population of the country, increase the likelihood of better development and eliminate one
of the possible risks of that increase violence against women.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PARLIAMENT, THE GOVERNMENT AND MINISTRY OF
LABOR AND MINISTRY OF SOCIAL PROTECTION OF KYRGYZSTAN

Conducting gender-specific analysis prior to adoption laws on employment and related

fields

Adoption of laws providing equal right policy and equal opportunities to men and women
in the field of employment

Conducting assessment of the implementation of laws providing equal right policy and
equal opportunities to men and women in the field of employment

Provision of incentives for employers for hiring women such as decrease of tax and other
Increase public awareness about the

factors underlying low female employment in

Kyrgyzstan

Increase public awareness about the benefits of employing women through media such
as increasing organizational efficiency, providing a better balance for staff and other

Maximising womens employment by offering more flexible opportunities such as homeworking, more part-time jobs, flexible hours

Design interventions that are aimed in changing the attitude of employers on hiring
women

Decrease women's care and reproductive burden by increasing the number of free public
kindergartens, after school care centers, school buses and other family support
mechanisms that would allow women to spent more time outside their homes

RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE, NATIONAL BANK OF KYRGYZ

REPUBLIC (NBKR), AND OTHER BANKS AND MICRO-CREDIT INSTITUTIONS IN
KYRGYZTSAN

Provide legislative framework for loan institutions to work more efficiently

Ministry of Finance and NBKR

should cooperate with international donors to establish

loan programs

Cooperate with the Global Banking Alliance for Women under the World Bank

Adopt measures that would encourage women to run small businesses

Provide opportunity for women for easy access for affordable and fast

long-term and

short-term loans for private businesses

Provide mechanisms for cooperation of financial resources such as credit organizations

associations

Reduce administrative barriers for development of womens business

Promote of the positive attitude to womens and family businesses

Provide common platforms for small business engagement, assisting women to establish
contacts with the business community

Disseminate information about best practices of womens or family businesses

Provide training centers on business start-up, basic accounting, usage of communication

technologies trainings and others for women or encourage private sector and civil society
to be engaged in it

Collect gender segregated data on businesses of women for further improvement in the
policy

Collect gender segregated data on womens economic contribution that can for further
analysis and sharing with stakeholders

RECOMMENDATION TO THE GOVERNMENT, MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AND MINISTRY OF

INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF KYRGYZSTAN
Provide mandatory training to the police, prosecutors, judges, attorneys, and social
workers on deep understanding of legislation on violence against women. The training
should be of a periodical manner due to the changes in the personal

Law enforcement institution should develop their own regulations, guidelines,

instructions, manuals and standards on implementation of the legislation. While trainings
the participants should receive information on how to register domestic violence, file the
necessary documents within their competence

Introduce state monitoring system on implementation of laws, this will keep the
competent authorities accountable for their legal obligations and it will allow to identify
the effective measures and shortcomings of the legislation

RECOMMENDATION TO THE GOVERNMENT AND MINISTRY OF SOCIAL PROTECTION OF

KYRGYZSTAN
Increase supportive programs for the victims of domestic violence that are aimed not
only in providing financial support and shelters, but aimed in educating women and

acquirement of skills will greatly influence lives of victimized women. Programs providing
courses on sewing, cooking, and other skilled works should be introduced

RECOMMENDATION TO THE GOVERNMENT, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE AND

MASS MEDIA IN KYRGYZSTAN

Develop a special program aimed in increasing public awareness on the issues of gender
equality, women rights, domestic violence. This programs would change the social
attitude and prevent the occurrence of domestic violence. It can include mandatory
courses in the schools, universities and other educational institutions. It may be as an

additional themes to be discussed during courses as Human being and Society

Special documentary movies, reels, posters, articles in the magazines and newspaper
could be distributed on the topic of domestic violence. This would help in modifying the
stereotypes and promote life of women without violence

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