Fun Fast Facts:
- Sexual acts between persons of the same sex have been legal in Kyrgyzstan since 1998.
- There is an equal age of consent for both homosexual and heterosexual acts.
- LGBTI NGOs have reported that LGBTI people experience direct and indirect discrimination in the healthcare system, with few services being LGBTI friendly or aware of LGBTI specific health issues.
- In 2011, legislation passed meaning Trans people can change their name and gender marker without any kind of medical intervention.
- Gay and bisexual men are at serious risk of entrapment, extortion, beating and sexual violence. Such abuses largely go unpunished.
- Lesbian and bisexual women continue to be subjected to forced marriages and ‘curative rapes’.
- The police themselves sometimes abuse lesbian and bisexual women and transgender men. Police have also raided and harassed organisations that defend the basic rights of these groups.
LGBT-friendly organisation: Human Rights Watch, Kyrgyzstan Office
- One of the world’s leading independent organisations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights.
- By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, HRW gives a voice to the oppressed and holds oppressors accountable for their crimes.
- HRW makes use of rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy to build pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse.
- For more than 30 years, HRW has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
W3JOY interviewed: Anna Kirey of Human Rights Watch, Kyrgyzstan Office and author of the report “They Told Us We Deserved This: Police Violence Against Gay and Bisexual Men in Kyrgyzstan”
Police found a group of people that would not be complaining about police abuse, about extortion because they have just too much to lose. They seek out gay and bisexual men through dating websites and in parks, in hotel rooms. And when they detain one gay man, they ask him for contacts of other gay men to make sure they can extort more money.
The issue is that very few gay and bisexual men actually file complaints. Out of 40 men that I have interviewed, only two filed complaints and only in one was there something similar to an investigation – even though it didn’t bring any results.
It’s a bit of a dilemma – the government says they’re willing to investigate but they cannot provide a confidential mechanism or protect confidentiality of victims.
We would like the government to establish an independent complaint mechanism which would ensure a high level of confidentiality. We would also really like the government to publicly condemn this kind of police abuse. So far the Ministry of Internal Affairs said the claims of the report are unfounded. They’re quite upset about it.Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:52 — 28.3MB)