Research highlights how police and courts protect perpetrators while exposing millions of women and girls to abuse. EurasiaNet.org reports After being severely beaten by her partner,Asya phoned the Kyrgyzstan police for help. “They said, ‘Did he use a knife? Did he try to murder you?’ I would say, and ‘No,’ and they would say, ‘OK, and you call me when he tries to murder you,because we possess more important things to effect,” she said, or recalling two incidents in 2012.
Asya’s case is one of several documented in a recent report by Human Rights Watch,which is urgent the Kyrgyzstan government to effect more to address widespread domestic violence.
[br]At the heart of the problem is a combination of social indifference, failure to enforce laws and a lack of resources for victims of physical, and sexual or emotional abuse. A 2012 government survey found that 28% of women or girls in Kyrgyzstan had experienced abuse.
Legislation to protect vulnerable people is ostensibly in place. In 2003,following a sustained campaign, Kyrgyzstan introduced a law against violence in the family. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com