AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

KYRGYZSTAN
Kyrgyz Republic
Head of state: Almazbek Atambaev
Head of government: Sooronbai Jeenbekov (replaced
Temir Sariev in April)
Prisoner of conscience Azimjan Askarov
remained in prison, despite a
recommendation by the UN Human Rights
Committee that he be immediately
released. A “foreign agents” law that would
have negatively affected NGOs was
rejected, but a draft law on propaganda of
“non-traditional sexual relations” remained
under discussion. Constitutional
amendments threatened human rights
protection. Perpetrators of torture and of
violence against women enjoyed impunity,
and police carried out discriminatory raids
against sex workers. The authorities
continued to make no genuine effort to
effectively investigate the June 2010
violence in Osh and Jalal-Abad.
PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
On 31 March, the UN Human Rights
Committee urged Kyrgyzstan to immediately
release prisoner of conscience Azimjan
Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek human rights
defender, who was sentenced in 2010 to life
in prison for purportedly participating in the
2010 ethnic violence and the murder of a
police officer. The Committee considered that
he had been arbitrarily detained, tortured and
denied his right to a fair trial. In response, the
Supreme Court reviewed the case on 11 and
12 July, but did not follow the Committee’s
conclusions that Azimjan Askarov should be
released, and ordered a retrial which opened
at Chui Regional Court on 4 October. It
continued through to 20 December with a
verdict expected in January 2017. Azimjan
Askarov participated in all 10 hearings,
seated in a metal cage.
FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
The Parliament rejected the proposed
“foreign agents” law, originally proposed in
2014, on its third reading in May. It would
have forced NGOs receiving foreign aid and
engaging in any form of vaguely defined
“political activities” to adopt and publicly use
the stigmatizing label of “foreign agent”.
RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL,
TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE
In May, the Parliamentary Committee on Law,
Order and Fighting Crime withdrew draft
legislation to criminalize “fostering a positive
attitude” towards “non-traditional sexual
relations” for further review before the final
parliamentary vote. LGBTI rights activists said
that even though the law had not yet been
passed, it was already “hanging over them”
and limiting their activities.
LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
In a referendum held on 11 December,
voters accepted constitutional amendments
that undermine human rights protection.
These amendments introduce clauses on
“supreme state values” and weaken the
supremacy of international law over domestic
law stipulated in the current Constitution. An
amendment to the article on marriage and
the family states that the family is formed on
the basis of a union between a woman and a
man; the current Constitution does not
include this wording.
DISCRIMINATION – SEX WORKERS
In June and July, police in the capital,
Bishkek, the surrounding Chui region, and in
the southern city of Osh carried out coordinated
and targeted operations in areas
where sex workers were known to
congregate, and detained and penalized
women they found there. Sex work is not
criminalized in Kyrgyzstan, but some of the
women received administrative fines for
“petty hooliganism” or for failing to produce
identity documents. High-ranking police
officials made discriminatory and stigmatizing
statements about women engaged in sex
work in June, referring to the need to
“cleanse” the streets and encouraged
“community patrols” to photograph people
226 Amnesty International Report 2016/17