Kyrgyzstan

The authorities also arrested and prosecuted scores of human traffickers and illegal visa traders, investigating hundreds of companies accused of exploiting government contracts to engage in human trafficking.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

During the UPR in July, Kuwait accepted recommendations to fully implement CEDAW but rejected other recommendations including to ensure “full equality between men and women”, to criminalize sexual violence and marital rape and to make its personal status and nationality laws genderneutral.3

In August, Parliament approved a bill criminalizing domestic violence, offering further protections for victims of domestic violence as well as legal, medical and rehabilitation services. Women continued to face discrimination in law and practice.

Kuwait retained a law (Penal Code Article 153) that makes murder of a female relative punishable by as little as a fine in “honour killing” cases. Killings of women by their brothers were reported in Kuwait City in September and December.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

Maha al-Mutairi, a transgender woman, was arrested several times and charged under Article 198 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes “imitat[ing] the other sex in any way”. On 5 June, shortly before fulfilling a summons to attend a police station, she posted Snapchat videos accusing police officers of raping and beating her during her seven months’ detention in 2019 in a male prison for “imitating the opposite sex”. She was released on 8 June without charge.

DEATH PENALTY

Courts continued to hand down death sentences; no executions were reported.

1. COVID-19 is new pretext for old tactics of repression in GCC (MDE 04/3136/2020)

2. Kuwait: Heavy prison sentences of activists demanding rights of citizenship (Press release, 28 January)

KYRGYZSTAN

Kyrgyz Republic Head of state: Talant Mamytov (replaced Sadyr Japarov in November, who replaced Sooronbai Jeenbekov in October) Head of government: Artem Novikov (replaced Sadyr Japarov in November, who replaced Kubatbek Boronov in October)

Reports of torture and other ill-treatment in police custody continued. The government failed to take adequate measures to protect health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survivors of gender-based violence faced serious obstacles in accessing justice. Prisoner of conscience Azimjan Askarov died after contracting pneumonia in prison. Human rights defenders faced retaliation for their work. Proposed new legislation threatened to impose further restrictions on NGOs. Police dispersed a peaceful march to mark International Women’s Day.

BACKGROUND

The first cases of COVID-19 were reported on 18 March and a state of emergency was declared from 22 March to 10 May. Restrictions were severe; in some cases residents were sealed into their apartment blocks.

The country was plunged into a period of instability, after the October parliamentary elections results were widely contested and then annulled after mass protests. Several people held in custody were released by the protesters, including Sadyr Japarov who had been imprisoned in 2017 for hostage-taking. Amid bitter disputes over leadership, a group of parliamentarians nominated him as Prime Minister on 10 October. President Sooronbai Jeenbekov resigned under pressure on 15 October and Sadyr Japarov was confirmed as interim President, but then stepped down in

November to run in presidential elections set for January 2021.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

Credible reports of torture and other illtreatment in police custody persisted. Uzbekistani journalist Bobomurod Abdullayev was arrested in the capital, Bishkek, on 9 August following an extradition request from Uzbekistan. He was denied access to a lawyer, and later alleged that investigators tortured him on 11 August to force him to sign a document by attempting to suffocate him with a towel. On 22 August, Bobomurod Abdullayev was forcibly returned to Uzbekistan, where he was at real risk of torture, while his application for asylum in Kyrgyzstan was still pending.

The UN Human Rights Committee ruled in the cases of Shukurillo Osmonov and Zhanysbek Khalmamatov in May and June respectively that Kyrgyzstan had failed to carry out independent investigations into torture allegations. Shukurillo Osmonov alleged that he was tortured by four police officers in 2011, to force him to confess to taking part in the mass disturbances in Osh in 2010, although he had been out of the country at the time. His allegations of torture were investigated by the same investigator who had been in charge of the investigation against him and who found no evidence of torture despite medical reports and eyewitness statements. Shukurillo Osmonov was later convicted of arson, rioting and murder.

RIGHT TO HEALTH – HEALTH WORKERS

The authorities failed to protect the human rights of health workers. Doctors were not provided with adequate PPE in a timely fashion, they were expected to work excessive hours, were subjected to enforced and unsafe “prison like” quarantine, and remained on low pay (and were often not paid on time). Compensation payments to workers for death and illness due to COVID-19 were restricted and not paid to all those who otherwise should have qualified. Furthermore, doctors who spoke out about working conditions and lack of PPE faced reprisals.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

Survivors of gender-based violence faced serious obstacles in accessing justice, such as the failure to provide a protected environment for victims during the judicial process. Survivors were often subjected to threats from the prosecution or public, and in many cases withdrew their complaints. According to the Interior Ministry, in 2019, 8,519 cases relating to domestic violence under the Code on Misdemeanours were recorded, but only 554 cases reached the courts (their outcomes were not reported), and 560 were still under investigation. The rest were terminated because the alleged victims withdrew their complaints or petitioned the prosecuting authorities to end the proceedings. According to the Ministry, between January and March 2020, the number of reported cases of domestic violence increased by 65% compared to the same period in 2019. In June, the Code of Criminal Procedure was amended to allow police to detain perpetrators of domestic violence for up to 48 hours.

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

Human rights defenders continued to face harassment and reprisals for their work. Kamil Ruziev, the leader of the human rights organization Ventus in the city of Karakol, was targeted by the criminal justice system in retaliation for his work on behalf of victims of torture. Police arrested him outside a court building in Karakol on 29 May for not having any identification with him, in full knowledge that the relevant document had been deposited in the court building. He was remanded under house arrest on 31 May on a charge of allegedly falsifying a hospital letter presented to a court to explain why he missed an appeal on behalf of one of his clients, even though doctors confirmed that they had issued the letter. The case was ongoing at year ’s end.