Strengthening Human Rights in Kyrgyzstan
In Kyrgyzstan, Freedom House enhances the capacity of local civil society groups to rapidly respond to human rights violations, to provide advocates with the skills to defend the right to freedom of assembly, and to equip local groups with the tools to combat gender-based violence and bride-kidnapping.
Freedom House has been intricately involved several important recent policy and legal developments in Kyrgyzstan. For example, Freedom House expertise and monitoring ensured that Kyrgyzstan’s Law on Peaceful Assemblies adequately took into account international human rights norms and input from civil society organizations.
Freedom House and partners have been out front on combatting torture in Kyrgyzstan, and monitor detention facilities across the country. As part of our work, Freedom House recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with several Kyrgyzstani government agencies, the OSCE Center in Bishkek, and several Kyrgyzstani organizations on monitoring conditions in detention facilities. The Memorandum is a key step in combatting torture in Kyrgyzstan and commits the government to give monitors access to facilities.
Following the 2010 violence in Kyrgyzstan’s south, Freedom House has worked to strengthen understanding about what happened and to provide support to human rights defenders inappropriately accused of facilitating violence or racial hatred. A report authored by Russian NGO Memorial and supported by Freedom House and the Norwegian Helsinki that offers an account of the June 2010 events is the most detailed and has been highly praised.
Learn more about Freedom House’s work in the following areas in Kyrgyzstan:
- Following the revolution of April 2010
- Chronicle the Osh nightmare of June 2010
- Kyrgyzstan’s new constitution
- Kyrgyzstan as a parliamentary republic and elections
- “Say ‘No’ to torture”
- Victims of domestic violence
- Kidnapping brides