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Unofficial English version
The article for Ombudsman’s report of Kyrgyz Republic
Respect for human rights with respect to youth. The development of youth human rights movement in Kyrgyz Republic
The institute of Ombudsman in Kyrgyz Republic attorned the right on writing the independent article about the respect of rights of young people for Youth human rights network YHRNK (МПСК)1 for the first time in Kyrgyzstan (In the preparation for the present article in November and December 2009 we included 506 young participants from all regions by collecting data in conducting focus groups and questionnaires.)
State youth politics of Kyrgyz Republic
The participation and realization of potentials of young people mostly depends on State Youth Politics (SYP)
On 25 June 2009, Jogorku Kenesh of Kyrgyz Republic adopted new edition of KR Law “About
the basis of youth politics”. As it is said by initiators: “The act is special because of direct participation of youth in the development of the draft”2
After adoption of the new law our youth becomes the subject of youth politics. The new terms were included like “volunteering”, which may bring us the change in other legal texts. This will count volunteering as a work experience.
The positive side of the law is the inclusion of new conceptions such as “informal consolidation of youth” and “unorganized youth”, the participants of which have the rights to be drawn in the implementation of SYP.
The modified law lost its previous regulations where the SYP was executed by the republican organ of the executive branch on youth and children. The article 5 of the new edition of the law gives rights of formation and realization of SYP to an uncertain group in the government and local governments. This group will be given the opportunity to demise the existing department on youth in the future if it is necessary.
The number of young people was reduced from ages 35 to 28. The main reason was that the big number of young people creates additional difficulties and duties for the government, while other strata of population needs government’s support3. In the National Statistics committee the number of young people at the ages from 14 to 35 was 1991279., or 39% of the population.
The law gives opportunities for youth to actively participate in the state’s local goal oriented programs, by the help of government. The best illustration is the promise of the president of Kyrgyz Republic to provide 50 mln. soms for the youth development. According to the new law, all competitions and contests financed by the state must be transparent, and must guarantee equal rights of accession to all subjects.
On 25 June 2009, civil organizations were proposed by the Department of youth to nominate candidates who will determine winners of the social projects. However, the outcome the competition on expert commission and organization committee was not divulged4.
On 19 October 2009, the Department of youth announced a competition among youth NGOs for the support of socially important projects5. Most of civil activists and leading youth human right NGOs were not included in the activity.
Political rights
19.7% of respondents of YHRNK complained about the exertion of pressure during the last presidential elections in 2009. They especially marked: the compulsion to vote for the candidate (45% of respondents experienced the pressure during the election), to sign for the support of one candidate (30,8%), the influence from their relatives and friends (16,5%) and compulsion to agitate against their will.
Organizations monitoring the election elicits systematic incidence of violation of youth rights.
- Pressure to sign for the candidate6
- The use of youth as an additional crowd in agitation events. The good illustration of use of administrative authority for the gathering of people was in Jalal- Abad city.: “All state financed workers and students”7 had to participate in the meeting with K. Bakiev, which was held in the local stadium on 20 June 2009. These kinds of incidents were observed in cities like Osh and Talas. Nearly two thousand students of local Universities, during their examination period, were forced to go to the “old square” on 2nd July. The purpose of the meeting was devoted to the sending of student brigades for the building of HEP “Kambar Ata 2”, nevertheless people could see the banners and posters of agitation form of the current president of Kyrgyzstan. Moreover, political figures like Madumarov A., the secretary of Security Council; Abdulaev U., the vice-premier minister of KR gave speeches in front of the crowd. According to the Code of KR on “Elections of Kyrgyz Republic”, p. 13. art. 30, public servants are not allowed to conduct agitation while executing their administrative duties. The Central Commission of elections and referendums of KR did not find any breach from those public servants.
- In some Universities, during the Election Day, dates of all kinds of examinations were changed. Students were forced to be registered in dormitories in Osh State University and Osh State Juridical institute and Kyrgyz National University named after J.Balasagyna students8.
Despite of the attempts to carry dialogue between state and young civil activists, some incidents in 2009 gave clear evidences about the continuation of former ways of pressure to independent youth. After conducting questionnaires by YHRNK, 20,4% of young members of parties and public figures “experienced pressure from officials because of their activities9.
On 4 march 2009, young activist Maksim Kuleshov was placed to Republican center of mental health. He was kept 22,5 hours there, where he was injected with unknown drugs and fastened to beds. Later, doctor Aralbaev J. and deputy director of the Center, Beshkempirov E., acknowledged: “There is no reason for compulsory hospitalization”, and “diagnosis is not issued”10 . We observe the violation of KR Law on “Psychiatric service”, which allows compulsory hospitalization only for people whose “mental insanity is serious”
Michail Golovanov, companion of M. Kuleshov who was also caught was sentenced for 15 days of imprisonment without the right for a lawyer. Despite the article 598 Code of administrative responsibility of KR, his appealing on 5 March 2009 on the execution of administrative penalty in relation to him was not suspended by the deputy chief of Receiver-distributor of CMIA(ГУВД) Bishkek, Ashirbaev J., where he was kept, and the Chief of CMIA (ГУВД) c. Bishkek Degenbaev T. Only after the provision of the court of Pervomaiskiy district, Michail Golovanov was released from the Receiver-distributor.
As the Election Day got closer, the pressure to independent activists and opposition organization was only increasing.
The State committee of national security of KR on 13th to 14th July 2009 held a conversation with each member of the movement “Я не верю” and members of youth wing of political parties (altogether 7 people). These conversations were held in a rude way and concerned the activities during the pre-election period. Going to meetings and other demonstrations were prohibited and occurrence of any such activity would be instituted as criminal proceedings.
All actions and decisions were approved by the Prosecutor Military’s Office of Kyrgyz Republic. In response, members of “Я не верю” tried to picket the building of oversight body. However, the deputy Chief of Internal affairs department of Pervomaiskiy district, Shatmanov T., prohibited young activists’ activity without showing them any restricting official documents from court as it is fixed in the Law of Kyrgyz Republic “The right of citizens for peace rallies and demonstrations without weapon”.
Toughening of legislation, relating peace meetings, resisted in realization and implementation of civil rights, which is illustrated in number of actions, from September until December 2009 – 9 cases, and 17 cases for the 2006 at the same period11.
According to the survey among young civil and political activists of YHRNK (МПСК), 9.8% of respondents declared that they were detained by the policemen for participation in public demonstrations at least once in 2009.
But after the election, the situation became softer, only if the number of participants was limited and if demonstrations do not violate the judicial ascertainment in Legislation.
The participants of the flesh-mob on 4 august 200912 “We are for human rights” were detained by the police only because they took public photographing in front of the White House. The Court acquitted the defendants there by stopping the police from making this case. The same flesh-mob «For right to live», which was held on 20 November 2009, at this time, was not suppressed by the Internal affairs department of Pervomaiskiy district.
The placement of M. Kuleshov to the mental hospital concerned the civil society. His last hours of staying in the Republican center of mental health gathered many people near the Ministry of Internal affair’s building and led to the consolidation of the young human right activists.
Several youth NGOs supported members of the movement I don’t believe (“Я не верю”), who were threatened by the State committee of national security. Special report and closed briefing informed the International organizations and foreign observers about elections and the pressure on activists and students.
The rights of Students
YHRNK(МПСК) investigated all educational system including high school students from 9th to 11th grades13 to what extend the rights of students are abided.
They found infringements of the law such as extortion, discrimination, humiliation, violation of contract conditions, compulsory sell of tangible property, illegal collecting of money and so on.
Extortion in education system has become not a rare case. In the survey, 84.4% of all respondents answered in the affirmative for the question: “ Do we have corruption in education system”14. Also, 10% of respondents in another survey in 2009, affirmed that they were forced to give bribes. One of the students of Osh humanitarian pedagogical institute told about similar case and provided with valuable information.
The senior year student at Kyzyl Kya philological institute, who was required to give 1500 soms before submitting her senior thesis, said that our state universities have lots of traditions in order to collect money from students; the best example is to bring money for the examination day (500 to 2500 soms).
New types of corruption like buying tickets, lotteries and books of teachers for higher prizes, have occupied whole education system. A group of students at Talas state university refused to buy tickets for an old seen movie “Son”(“Уул”). This type of corruption was observed even after Rector’s of the university, Jylkychiev A., order not to conduct commercial activities inside the territory of the building.
Another group of students at Kyzyl Kya university of nature management and geotechnology tried to check the legality of the same case, by requesting the charter of the university. However, Shamshiev O., the director of the university, denied to give charter to students and behaved in a rude way15.
Most of the breaches are related with default on contract obligations by administrations of universities. The sudden increase of tuition fees in the mid semester was observed at International university of Kyrgyzstan. This unusual incident was solved only after intervention of Ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan with the Union for youth and student rights. Another example was observed in Kyrgyz national university (KNU) named after J. Balasagyna, where students were forced to collect 100-300 soms for sport equipments16.
Students of Osh city universities picketed on 26 October 2009, where they showed their discontent with the quality of education, the lack of ethics from faculty, and increase of fees for tuition and dormitory. The mayor of Osh city, Myrzakmatov M., promised to solve this issue and investigate the administration of Osh state university17.
Couple of words about schools situation. Focus groups were conducted in Talas Tokmok and Karakol, where high school students usually market problems like ethnic discrimination, violation of students rights and abuse from faculty stuff.
On the other hand, the situation in education system shows the development of active student participations for their rights.
With the assistance of Free generation Liberal youth alliance and the Institute of Ombudsman of Kyrgyz Republic, nine universities in Kyrgyzstan established agencies on students’ rights (student ombudsman). Some university administrations actively interact with these agencies and do not resist their work on promoting students rights.
Youth human right group launched a project of development of student labour union. In 2009, they could register one cell of labour union in Naryn state university which faced a problem with state registration18.
There are lots of NGOs working on the development of legal culture of young generation. Many useful discussion seminars on human rights are organized by association such as Free Generation Liberal youth alliance, Amity Youth public fund, Club of liberal youth, Kebel Club, Youth human right group , Kylym shamy Center for human rights, Interbilim Centre, NGO Erep, «Nash vek». Human right center Сitizens against corruption has been organizing festival of documentary films on human rights for three years “Бир дуйно” (“One world”).
“Street Law” program has become popular in our society, where the network of clinics gives trainings on Human Rights for senior high school students.
Personal immunity and freedom from torture
The violation of freedom of movement by agencies of Internal affairs, in relation to youth is the most widespread.
We do not have laws which oblige citizens to carry their identifying documents. The law of KR on “Internal migration” (p. 10, art. 6) says: “every citizen has a right to exercise his rights regardless of the place of his registration or domiciliary”. In practice, the right for freedom of movement is breached by bylaws, which brings to arrests, fines and limited access on social and medical services.
Most of the claims of law-enforcement agencies are related with youth. The survey of YHRNK (МПСК) in 2009 showed that 16% of young respondents affirmed that they had problems with policemen, where 10,3% of them at least once and 5.9% more than once were stopped by policemen. 52,1% of them were detained because they did not have passports or other identifying documents with themselves, and insufficiency of their passport registration. Also, we can clearly see the use of violence against these people. For example, 16 years old B. says: “When policemen stopped me and asked documents, I refused because they did not show me their corresponding documents. Then, they took me to insulator and beat me up.”
The Ministry of Internal affairs of Kyrgyz Republic worked out new draft for the change of KR law on “Internal affairs agencies”. The adoption of the new law will limit the freedom of movement, and all people will be checked for identification documents .
The reason of the arrival of the deputy of Jogorku Kenesh, Sultanalieva G., to Talas city on October 2009, was to talk with students about racketeering in education system. Majority of participants said that policemen provoke conflicts between gangs. After that meeting some of the participants were brought to police station, others were investigated at their schools in order to restrict complains to higher institutions of police.
Young people are not the only victims of Tortures and other inhuman form of punishments by policemen. However, young people are the main subjects of these violations. In 2009, the Public Fund “Voice of freedom”, whose specialization is to give juridical, psychological and medical assistance for victims of tortures, provided with statistics that show 25 of 37 people who were the victims of tortures are young people i.e. 2/3 of all declarants19.
Problem of physical and psychological violence by internal affairs stuff is an ailment of all society, recovery of which is possible only by mobilization of civil society and with the will of governing body to reform the system. To strengthen youth’s position against illegal activities is possible by implementation of legal and civil education.
Recommendations for state agencies
- to investigate the facts of pressure on civil and political activists;
- to adjust our constitution of KR in accordance with the international norms of Law on “The rights for freedom of assembly without weapon and freely organize and participate in different kinds of demonstrations”;
- to guarantee transparency and right in participation of young people in different kinds of state contests for the development of youth NGOs;
- for Ombudsman (Акыйкатчы) of Kyrgyz Republic with the help of nongovernmental sector and the ministry of education, to work out new courses on human rights and enforce them in educational programs;
- for the Ministry of Education and Culture of Kyrgyz Republic, administrations of Universities give rights for the development of independent active life of students ;
- for the government and agencies of Kyrgyz Republic to make an inventory of new bylaws and abolish some of them which limits the freedom of movement;
- to carry out analysis for the correspondence of constitution of Kyrgyz Republic, the draft of law on “internal affairs agencies”.
[1] Free Generation liberal youth Alliance, Amity Public fund of youth, Club of liberal youth, Kebel Club, Kylym Shamy Center for human rights, Center Interbilim, the Council of youth and students rights under Ombudsman of KR, and authorized representatives of students rights movements in Universities of KR
[2] http://www.undp.kg/ru/media-room/news/article/news-list/13-democratic-governance/605-new-law-on-state-youth-policy-passed
[3] Information of justification for a bill
[4] http://jashtar.kg/site/ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=195&Itemid=9
[5] http://jashtyk.kg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57:2009-07-29-15-11-19&catid=39:2009-07-29-14-21-13
[6] Special report № 3 «On presidential elections 2009», July, 2009 http://www.liberal.kg/addtexts/specsoobshhenie3.html
[7] The report of the Inion civic organizations on independent monitoring the situation of presidential election of Kyrgyz Republic, 15 July, 2009, p.16
[8] Ibid
[9] Results of the poll of the level of infringement of human rights in relation to youth (in the profile of activists of NGO and political parties), МПСК, December, 2009.
[10] The certificate from the doctor Aralbaeva J. and deputy director of Republican center of mental health, Beshkempirova E. on 5.03.09, which is given to M.Kuleshov in order to get him out of the hospital. This certificate was requested by the members of apparatus of ombudsman of Kyrgyz republic and Public association “Mental health and society”
[11] Statistics provided by the Center of human rights “Кылыш шамы”
[12]Flesh mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.
[13] From the National stats committee of KR, the number of this strata of youth is 559522 people, i.e. 10,6 % of whole population
[14] http://www.for.kg/goid.php?id=68562&print
[15] The information is provided by “Youth human right group” Fund
[16] http://youth.kg/schoolsuniversities/323-nezakonnyj-sbor-deneg-so-studentov-v-kyrgyzskom.html
[17] Информационное агентство «АКИpress» http://fergana.akipress.org/news:58731/
[18] From A.Abdralieva’s words, the coordinator of the Youth human right group, from the article http://liberal.kg/news/1/189.html
[19] Information is provided by “Voice of Freedom” Fund |