March 16-22, 2015

1. Human Rights

Vb.kg March 16, 2015
Human Rights in Kyrgyzstan: all bad

• Kyrgyz Ombudsman, Bakyt Amanbaev, presented the yearly report on human rights issues in Kyrgyzstan to Members of Parliament.
• One of the main issues highlighted in the report were access to health care.
  • Medical errors and patient neglect are common.
• Amanbaev also indicated a failure of compliance with labor laws.
  • This includes inattention to hiring and firing employees.
  • Workers safety has also been identified as a problem.
• Education is also a problem.
  • Educational institutions are limited. o Religious schools, where headscarves are not necessarily banned from the classroom as they are elsewhere, often do not meet educational standards. 
• Vulnerability of Internal Migrants
  • Internal migrants often face difficulties obtaining housing, accessing basic services, and exercising rights to participate in the electoral process.
  • For the children of international migrants, birth certificates can be difficult to obtain.

2. Media

Vb.kg March 16, 2015
NGOs discourage hate speech in media

• The School of Peacekeeping and Media Technology with the support of the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives completed a study of hate speech in the media from December 2014-February 2015.
• They looked at a number of media sources including news, television, and social media.
• They found that alone there were minimal explicit expressions of ethnic hatred, but many intolerant statements and veiled hostility were observed.
• It was also observed that not only was there anti-Uzbek rhetoric, but and anti-Chinese, -Russian, -Korean, and -Uighur ethnic hatred. 
• The NGO’s concluded that Kyrgyz society has a severe case of xenophobia.
• Nationalist propaganda also features heavily across Kyrgyz media.

3. Policy & Politics

Vb,kg March 18, 2015
Rally held near the office of MP Karganbek Samakov

• 50 people gathered outside of the office of the Member of Parliament Karganbek Samakov
• Protestors, who had to apply for permission to gather in protest, are allowed to continue until March 25th.
• He has been accused of fraud for convincing people to sell they’re land for cheap. He promised them that jobs would be provided once he was able to develop the land, which had attracted the interests of Arab investors.
• Samakov developed the land to his own gains, and the Arab investors line was proven a scam.
• The protestors want justice for their deception.

24.kg March 16, 2015
Residents of Kara Gulja region in Osh complaining the MP Asylbek Jeenbekov has too much power in the region

• Residents of the district have called on parliament to correct the influence of Asylbek Jeenbekov in the region.
• Jeenbekov has 10 relatives working in the district’s government.
• Residents have complained that because of nepotism, they are unable to properly express their complaints.

Vb.kg 18 March 2015
Biometric registration to become mandatory to vote

• Beginning with the next parliamentary elections, which will be next in the autumn of 2015, in order to vote a citizen must hold biometric identification.
• Last year, Kyrgyzstan instituted a policy of biometric passports and identification papers.
• The political line for the adoption of biometric identification has been to combat crime, and that the program was devised not for political purposes.

Vb.kg March 18, 2015
Agreement on the Kyrgyz-Tajik Border to be finalized

• An agreement has been made for the drafting of the delimitation and demarcation of the Kyrgyz-Tajik state border.
• Kyrgyz and Tajik experts have decided to have an agreement drafted by month’s end.
• An agreement is important to prevent further conflict at the border.