Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-3

"In the case of adolescent girls and statutory rape, their relatives and parents negotiate with the police to arrange the marriage with the perpetrator. The police are seen to try to resolve statutory rape cases in this way without filing a case. In rural communities, local groups report that there have been cases of gang-rape where a victim would be forced to ‘marry’ one of the men who raped her in an attempt to ‘keep the village peace’. In some cases, they may later divorce. For relatives in these communities it is perceived as more important that the victim has been ‘married’ than have her family honour destroyed as a...more

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-1

"Kazakhstan’s legal system provides a number of opportunities for perpetrators to escape criminal liability or punishment, namely through the way sexual violence crimes are defined; allowing for the direct release of a perpetrator from liability or punishment in certain circumstances; and through the way sexual violence crimes are investigated and prosecuted, including with respect to adolescent girls" (1). "Even though the law punishes forms of penetration other than vaginal penetration (as per Article 121), there is an extremely limited understanding that other forms of penetration also constitute rape/sexual violence and often the authorities tend not to initiate any criminal investigation in such cases. As a result, due to this limited...more

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: LRW-LAW-2

"Contrary to international human rights standards, Kazakh law allows impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence if they 'reconcile' with the victim. According to Article 68 of the Criminal Code, a person might not be found responsible for a crime if he reconciles with the victim and 'compensates' the harm without further examination by the authorities. This Article can also be applied in cases of rape (non-aggravated), violent actions of a sexual character, statutory rape and compulsion to perform sexual actions" (4). "Article 70 enables a perpetrator to be released from criminal responsibility due to change of circumstances, such as if it is established that at the time of the trial,...more

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: LRW-DATA-1

"In a case worked on by a contributor to this submission involving a 16 year old girl who was raped on a train by two train attendants, the investigators interrogated residents from the girl’s village which served to re-traumatise her. There was no awareness or appreciation that in asking all residents about information pertaining to the case, this would publicise the girl’s personal ordeal and force her to relive the traumatic experience. In another case, a 16 year old girl committed suicide two years after she reported that her step-father had raped her. In her suicide note, she wrote 'nobody believes me'" (4-5).

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: CWC-DATA-2

"Local groups report that the situation is particularly difficult for women and girls living in rural areas where it is often the case that they do not have enough knowledge or confidence to file a complaint and instead are easily dissuaded from accessing justice. If there are no witnesses, a victim living in a rural area will, in most cases, keep silent about the crime, while in cases where there are witnesses, there is a greater, yet still limited, chance that the case will be able to proceed" (6).

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: WAM-PRACTICE-1

"A university is mired in deepening scandal after leaking details of female students who are virgins. Highly personal and confidential medical information concerning hundreds of women was published on social media. It remains unclear why doctors linked to the Al-Farabi Kazakhstan National University in Almaty collected information on the virginity status of its students aged 17 to 21" (par. 1-3). "Initial reports say the virginity status of at least 190 students has been leaked and can be viewed by their teachers and other students. The leaked data includes 'the results of an examination with a gynaecologist, noting whether the patient was a virgin', it was reported. 'The documents were instantly...more

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: SEGI-PRACTICE-1

"Women students are furious over the disclosure. Our personal data is hanging on every lamp post,' complained one. Another commented: 'After intimate medical examinations, they collect information and throw it into a general chat room.' Another hit out: 'In Kazakhstan, there is no concept of personal space and privacy at all'" (par. 15-18).

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: CBMC-PRACTICE-1

"It appears women students underwent intimate gynaecological examinations at the university’s medical centre, and it is the results of these that were leaked" (par. 5). "Initial reports say the virginity status of at least 190 students has been leaked and can be viewed by their teachers and other students. The leaked data includes 'the results of an examination with a gynaecologist, noting whether the patient was a virgin', it was reported" (par. 10-11).

Countries: Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda
Variables: IRP-SCALE-1

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Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-5

“Sex work in Kazakhstan is quasi-decriminalized such that selling sex is not illegal, but solicitation in public areas, operating a brothel, or engaging in trafficking are subject to prosecution (Crago, 2009). Drug use and drug possession are criminalized (Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, 2021), leaving female sex workers who use drugs vulnerable to regular and systemic extortion, detention, harassment, physical and verbal abuse, and sexual coercion from law enforcement” (para 2). “A report documenting police violence against 60 female sex workers in Kazakhstan found that nearly all faced extortion (90%), were denied legal assistance (92%), and experienced physical abuse or torture (78%), while over half were forced to undergo HIV testing...more

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: DV-PRACTICE-2

"Support and resources for survivors are also usually tough to get to, especially for residents in rural areas" (para 16).

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: DV-DATA-1

"According to a UN Women survey in 2018, 17 per cent of 'ever-partnered women aged 18-75' in the country said they have experienced physical or sexual partner violence, while 21 per cent have experience psychological abuse" (para 10). "HRW also said that police in the country, according to the Interior Ministry, get more than 100,000 domestic violence complaints a year. The report added: 'In the first 10 months of 2022, 93 women in Kazakhstan were killed in domestic violence-related homicides and 794 criminal cases were opened into moderate and severe bodily harm charges'" (para 19-20).

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: DV-DATA-1

"The trial of a former government minister charged with beating his wife to death has gripped public attention in Kazakhstan, and some see it as a litmus test of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's promise to build a fairer, more equitable society. Shocking footage played in the courtroom this week showed Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former economy minister, repeatedly kicking and punching a slender young woman wearing only a coat and boots, and dragging her around by her hair. The woman, 31-year-old Saltanat Nukenova, was found dead last November in a restaurant owned by a relative of her husband, where the couple had spent almost a whole day and the previous night. She...more

Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: NGOFW-DATA-1

"'Making domestic violence a criminal offence is what we have been promoting for many years,' says Zulfiya Baisakova, head of the Union of Crisis Centres, a non-governmental organisation" (para 18).

Countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Madagascar, South Africa, Turkmenistan
Variables: MULTIVAR-SCALE-6

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