In 2023, ENPUD’s Expert Council on Drug Policy began documenting strategic cases among people who inject drugs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan, 7 strategic cases were documented. Based on the collected evidence, ENPUD experts prepared an analytical document on drug policy trends in the country.
In Kyrgyzstan, as in many other countries, the problem of repressive drug policy remains one of the serious social and public problems. However, against the background of the fight against illicit drugs, some cases raise doubts about the legality of the actions of law enforcement agencies. In recent years, cases of people who use drugs or have a history of drug use being subjected to arbitrary treatment by police officers have become increasingly common, raising serious questions about the legality and fairness of such actions.
fairness of such actions.
For many years, police officers have portrayed people with drug problems as criminals and dangerous subhumans, dehumanizing them and creating stigma and discrimination. This practice was intended to deprive civil society of the grounds for defending the rights of such people. Instead of following its true purpose of protecting the property, health, and social well-being of all citizens,
including those who have encountered drugs, the police sometimes carried out actions that violated their rights.
Drug control agencies in Kyrgyzstan have long used practices that violate the rights of people who use drugs or have a history of drug use. This included planting drugs, extortion, and corruption. Such police behavior created additional hardship for those who were already in difficult situations.
This publication is a product developed independently by the regional community ENPUD. The opinions expressed in the publication may not align with the position of the Global Fund, the Alliance for Public Health, the regional project SoS_project, REAct, or partners in the countries. Representatives of the aforementioned organizations were not involved in the writing, approval, or review of the material presented in this publication.
Earlier this year in Kyrgyzstan, Arthur (name changed) was the victim of a road traffic accident in which a second driver became the culprit by crashing into his car. After conducting an investigative check, the investigator refused to initiate a criminal case and sent the case to the traffic police to bring the guilty party to administrative responsibility under the code of offenses. The guilty driver was fined for traffic violations but refused to compensate for the damage caused to Arthur.
After contacting the REActor, Artur received legal support. The lawyer prepared the necessary documents and filed a statement of claim with the district court for compensation for material damage. In the process of court consideration, the lawyer requested to secure the claim, in particular, to seize the house of the perpetrator. The court issued a ruling on the seizure of the defendant’s property and then ruled in favor of Arthur, obliging the defendant to pay compensation in the amount of 350,650 soms (more than 3500 euros) for the damage caused.
More than 25 years have passed since the first case of HIV was registered in Kyrgyzstan. As of August 1, 2021, there are 10,807 people living with HIV in the country. And although the presence of the virus has long been no longer a sentence, for all the time only a few have revealed their status. The reason lies on the surface – a greater number of PLHIV are in no hurry to speak openly about themselves, as they are afraid of discrimination, humiliation and insults in their direction. In 2020-2022 alone, the REAct system in Kyrgyzstan registered more than 2,000 complaints about violations of the rights of representatives of vulnerable groups. Of these, over 20% (483 cases) where the victim is a person living with HIV. REAct, together with the Partner Network Association and the Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan, is working on documenting cases and providing real assistance to representatives of key groups in order to protect and defend their rights. 15 NGOs that participate in the Street Lawyers project and are located in different cities and regions of the country are constantly monitoring the situation and looking for ways to successfully resolve them.
You live in my flat, so you owe me!
This fall, one of the street lawyers was approached by Safiya (name changed). The girl lives with HIV, worked as an assistant cook in a cafe, but she did not tell anyone at work about her status. Due to the fact that there was no own housing, at some point she moved to a young man with whom she had been in a civil marriage for the past few years.
One evening, her drunken husband came to her work, called her out of the kitchen and demanded that Safiya “arrange” him a table with barbecue and liquor. The client said that she would not do this, because this is an expensive cafe and she does not want to work off this money later. The man began to shout that she lives in his flat, which means she owes him. The security guard of the cafe reacted to it and asked him to leave the place and not draw attention to himself. However, the man refused to leave, ordered 200 grams of cognac and sat down at the bar. Safiya returned to the kitchen and continued to work. Two hours later, the man, having got pretty drunk, made a scandal, started shouting that HIV-positive people, drug addicts and prostitutes work in the institution. The security guard, thinking that the girl could convince her man to leave the cafe, turned to her. The client went into the hall, tried to talk to him. In response, he started beating Safiya and publicly disclosing her HIV status. The guards came running to the screams. The girl was hidden in the kitchen, the police were called, and when they arrived at the place, the guard told them about everything that happened.
Instead of recording everything and taking testimony, the law enforcement officer refused to accept the girl’s statement, citing the fact that in the morning the man would wake up sober and good, and the girl would come running to collect the statement. She will also accuse police officers of inappropriate treatment of her husband. Therefore, he suggested that the administrator of the cafe write a statement against the man and he was only charged with the article “hooliganism”. The fact that he publicly beat the girl and revealed her HIV status, no one even began to take into account! The administrator of the institution refused to write a statement, she said that she did not want trials. The next morning, Safiya was fired from her job, and the man kicked her out of the house.
Real help is nearby
The street lawyer provided the girl with consultations on the topics: “Know your rights”, “Eradication of stigma and discrimination”, “Criminal liability for public disclosure of HIV status”. After that, he arranged for her temporary residence in a shelter that accepts women who suffered from violence. In his own car, the lawyer drove with the client to the house where she lived, so that Safiya took away personal stuff. Later, he gave her a food package and took her to a shelter, where the girl was provided with free accommodation and consultations with a professional psychologist. Now the client is involved as a volunteer of the organization and as a paid employment she is offered to clean the offices of several friendly organizations, thanks to which she can earn about 7,000 soms per month. Alas, she refused to write a statement, because she does not believe that the laws work, that this can give a result and her former partner will be punished. Although the case of Safiya is a violation of human rights in terms of the failure of police officers to fulfill their duties to detain the culprit for hooliganism. The situation can be changedwhen people living with HIV are confident that their rights are similar to others, and stigma and discrimination in society are prevented by raising public awareness, passing laws that protect human rights, and developing free legal services and access to them by members of the community.
For reference:
The Street Lawyers initiative was launched in 2016 in response to actual problems of vulnerable groups. Street lawyers are trained employees of non-governmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan, representing and defending the interests of vulnerable groups, key in the context of curbing the HIV epidemic. In the future, street lawyers were renamed “public defenders”.
This project helps people who are in a difficult life situation. Difficulties in obtaining documents, problems with access to medical services, abuse of authority by law enforcement officers are the main of the many barriers faced by representatives of key populations. A successful case is when a person realizes that his violated rights have been restored. He feels like a full citizen. The problem was solved through negotiations and achieve for the client the restoration of his rights. The main task of street lawyers is mediation. Public defenders act as a conductor between the client and government agencies.
Every year on December, 17, sex workers, their advocates, friends, families and allies celebrate the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers. At first, this date was conceived as a memorial in honor the memory of the victims of the killer from Green River. In the post-Soviet region, it was proposed to celebrate this day by the Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN).
REAct will join the Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers events and publish the collected evidence of violations of the rights of this vulnerable group in Kyrgyzstan, the country that managed to record the largest amount of evidence in the EECA region thanks to the effective work of non-governmental organizations and communities. We also publish the story of one of the clients who applied to illustrate the vulnerability and insecurity of sex workers.
Only during the 2020-2022, the REAct system in Kyrgyzstan registered more than 1,300 reports of violations of the rights including representatives of this key group.. More than 50% (668 cases) of registered cases reported violations of rights and discrimination by representatives of law enforcement agencies. Of the 668 cases, 34%of violations were reported by sex workers.
Sex work itself is not criminalized in Kyrgyzstan. However, everything related to it is connected, including the organization, may fall either under the norm of Art. 166 of the Criminal Code of the country – “involvement in prostitution”, or under Art. 167 – “promoting prostitution and debauchery.” Thus, in fact, sex work is criminalized and highly stigmatized. And alas, first of all, by the girls themselves.
For your help you will be punished
January 2022. Nazgul Baidovletova, public defender, «ZiOM21» Public Foundation, Talas (Kyrgyzstan) was approached by Amina (name changed). She and another girl (both sex workers) were beaten by clients. As it later became known, they wanted to rape her friend – Amina stood up for her, for which she paid such a high price…
Nazgul says that she immediately offered to write a statement and see a doctor, but the client refused. The reason for this was … the rapists themselves – it turned out that they were her acquaintances and the girl did not want to create problems and attract too much attention. Only on the third day, when the pain became unbearable, she again dialed the number of the human rights activist. Amina was immediately taken to a friendly doctor. The condition was terrible: bruises all over the body, eyes filled with blood, abdominal pain – he immediately recommended to go to the hospital. Nazgul began to emphasize again that such a case should not be ignored, and that those responsible men should be punished. But again she was refused – it seemed to the client that everything was not so serious and it was not worth exaggerating.
At the hospital, Amina was first seen by a traumatologist, but did not find anything in her profile and was redirected to a gynecologist. Examination and ultrasound in the women’s department gave a disappointing verdict – an urgent operation due to hemorrhage in the uterus. After it, the situation changed – the girl agreed to write a statement, but at the same time she called the offenders, in the hope that they would answer and help. But to no result.
We pay and the case is closed
According to the law, the gynecologist who took Amina signaled to law enforcement agencies that a patient with such a serious diagnosis was admitted, but they were in no hurry to respond. On the same day, Nazgul also applied to the district department of internal organs, but the request remained unanswered. Only the next day the police arrived and accepted the statement from the victim. But at that moment, the rapists got in touch with Amina. Upon learning that the girl turned to the authorities for help, they offered her to pay the costs of the operation if she wrote a counter statement and the case was closed. They began to put pressure on the fact that they are familiar, that they work in such an area … The girl had doubts – is she doing the right thing? As a result, Amina succumbed to their persuasion, accepted the money (the amount of 20 thousand soms, which is similar to 200 dollars) and the issue was closed.
But everything could be different
Obviously, without the intervention of paralegals, the case would not have reached law enforcement at all. However, the situation could have gone in a different, more significant “scenario”. According to the Istanbul Protocol, Kyrgyzstan has developed and implemented the ”Practical Guidelines for Documenting All Types of Violence”, according to which, when contacting a medical institution, any type of violence must be recorded by a doctor in a special form. And if the police representatives immediately responded to the call from the hospital and the appeal of the defender, took the testimony of the victim – for violators it would be a completely different article. Plus, the harm done to the health of the client has not been fully determined. But alas, the moment has passed.
Aisuluu Sharsheeva, mentor of the Street Lawyers project, comments on the situation: “When considering this and other similar situations where sex worker violence occurs, we should not miss an extremely important point – the self-stigma of our clients. Because of it, they are ready to endure pain, just not to go to the doctor, to forgive aggression and humiliation, because “such a category, they can treat us like that.” That is, instead of upholding the rights – in fact, to depend on violators. Girls are really extremely vulnerable, but they should not give up. This category must firmly change its approach, fight for its rights, otherwise everyone will forget about their existence. SWs should be understood and remembered, despite the cruel and inhuman treatment, everyone has the same rights and must be implemented.”
For reference:
REAct in Kyrgyzstan is being implemented in partnership between the Partnership Network Association and the Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan. Cases are documented by 15 NGOs that participate in the Street Lawyers project and are located in different cities and regions of the country.
The Street Lawyers initiative was launched in 2016 in response to actual problems of vulnerable groups. Street lawyers are trained employees of non-governmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan, representing and defending the interests of vulnerable groups, key in the context of curbing the HIV epidemic. In the future, street lawyers were renamed “public defenders”.
This project helps people who are in a difficult life situation. Difficulties in obtaining documents, problems with access to medical services, abuse of authority by law enforcement officers are the main of the many barriers faced by representatives of key populations. A successful case is when a person realizes that his violated rights have been restored. He feels like a full citizen. The problem was solved through negotiations and achieve for the client the restoration of his rights. The main task of street lawyers is mediation. Public defenders act as a conductor between the client and government agencies.
