Kyrgyzstan - Universal Periodic Review

UPR35, January 20, 2020
Recommendations by Canada

Background

According to UPR Info, a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that tracks the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, in the first two cycles of the UPR, Kyrgyzstan received 196 recommendations, accepting 139 (an acceptance rate of 71%). Canada’s recommendations addressed abduction and forced marriage, freedom of association, discrimination and LGBTI rights.

The inauguration of President Jeenbekov in 2017 marked the first normal transfer of power between two elected leaders in the history of the Kyrgyz Republic and independent Central Asia. Challenges remain in translating this democratic tradition into full protections of rights and freedoms for all members of Kyrgyz society.

Despite supporting over a dozen recommendations during its last UPR regarding the protection of women from gender-based violence, impunity for domestic violence persists while abduction and forced marriage remains a widespread problem. According to UNICEF, 13.8% of women under 24 were married through some form of coercion. Domestic violence and neglect is particularly acute among children of labour migrants.

While legal protections for journalists exist, other legislation has been used against journalists and human rights defenders to close media organisations, and to discourage public debate around issues related to human rights. LGBTI individuals continue to face stigmatization and discrimination in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan’s rejection of recommendations in 2015 on the rights of LGBTI persons raises concerns about Kyrgyzstan’s commitment to such protections. A lack of state intervention emboldens non-state actors to discriminate against LGBT individuals. The most recent data on hate crimes is from 2013 and Kyrgyzstan has never reported information on hate crimes motivated on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Cases of torture persist in Kyrgyzstan. A 2018 study by the NGO Coalition against Torture and National Center for the Prevention of Torture found that one in three of 679 respondents said that they had been subjected to a form of violence during arrest and detention. Additionally, prison conditions remain dismal and dangerous, with prisoners facing violence from both prison guards and prison gangs where officials are not able to control the inmates.

Recommendations

Thank you, Madame President.

Canada welcomes progress made on several fronts by Kyrgyzstan since its last UPR, including the strengthening of the Ombudsman Office to include national and international standards. 

Canada recommends that Kyrgyzstan:

1. Take further measures to prevent the misuse of legislation on extremist activity and terrorism; incitement of ethnic hatred; and defamation, in order to prevent targeting of journalists, media organisations, and human rights defenders.
2. Amend legislation to comprehensively protect vulnerable groups such as women and minorities, combat discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and remove barriers for vulnerable groups to access state programming, justice, and protection from violence. 
3. Fully investigate allegations of torture and bring perpetrators to justice. 
4. Improve prison and detention conditions by strengthening monitoring, bringing perpetrators of human rights violations to justice, and providing human rights training to the judiciary, prison officials, and law enforcement authorities.

Canada is encouraged to see Kyrgyzstan engage with its civil society organisations, necessary for a healthy pluralistic democracy.