In Kyrgyzstan, a two-year-old child was hospitalised after beating. This complicated case has shocked the whole country. While the police are investigating the case, the public wonders why preventive measures against violence against children have had no impact so far.
At night of February 3, a two-year-old boy was delivered to the hospital of Sokuluk district of Chui region after beating. The child had suffered a closed craniocerebral injury, a brain contusion, a genital injury, burns on hands and feet. As it was found out later, back in January the toddler was already hospitalised to the same hospital. Then he had his ear injured, but parents said that he was injured after a fall.
Relatives have done their best to hinder the work of healthcare workers, so the child was transferred to the children’s hospital No. 3 of Bishkek. According to the Ministry of Health, his condition is stable now.
A 35-year-old employer of the child’s parents is suspected of beating. He was detained into the pre-trial detention facility for two months. Meanwhile, the mother denies the guilt of the detainee and accuses the toddler’s father of everything.
“This story is very complicated. According to the father, not only the child, but also he and his wife were repeatedly abused by the employer. There is information that the employer has shot in the complainant’s leg from an air gun. And the mother turns out to live together with the suspect and she claims that it was father who was abusing the child,” said Askat Azarbekov, chief of the Ombudsman Office, at the press conference on February 7.
The investigation is held by the Directorate of Internal Affairs of Chui region, relevant examinations have been scheduled.
Number of child abuse cases is growing
According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, 244 minor abuse cases were registered in 2021, including 107 cases of sexual abuse. After the investigations, 86 cases were dismissed and 149 cases were sent to trial.
However, the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Migration have different information. According to it, 4.8 thousand children were found to be living in difficult situation in 2021. Almost 400 children were abused, including 118 cases of sexual abuse.
According to the Ministry, the number of cases of physical, sexual, psychological abuse against children is growing in the country. In three years, sexual abuse cases have almost doubled, while psychological abuse cases have increased three-fold, and physical abuse cases have increased by 30 per cent.
The official statistics does not show the real picture, scope and nature of abuse against children, according to experts. Usually, families try to hide such facts, and many people consider the application of physical force an acceptable method of parenting.
“The issue of abuse and violence against children in Kyrgyzstan is widespread and affects children’s rights most directly. 73 per cent of children suffer from abuse and neglect in families,” according to UNICEF reports.
At the end of last year, the UN recommended Kyrgyzstan to prohibit corporal punishment of minors both in the home and in foster and day care to end violence against children. Besides, the UN believes that Kyrgyzstan has to take measures to raise awareness and educate the people about children’s rights.
President didn’t approve the new Children’s Code
The continuously increasing number of violence against children is the result of ineffective preventive measures and lack of the established system of detection of children in risk groups. State authorities usually react post factum to the cases of violence against children, yet this approach will not return the children to life or make them healthy again. According to Nazgul Turdubekova, director of League of Child’s Rights Defenders, the current mechanisms are morally obsolete and do not meet the international standards.
According to her, the key task of state bodies is to identify and detect the most vulnerable areas where a child may slip out of sight, and then to develop clear action plans to solve the issue.
“We need to have a strong legislation, plus we need to develop achievable action plans. Only then we can say that our state is really assuming an active stand to protect every child,” Turdubekova said.
All these problems could be solved by the new version of the Children’s Code, according to the civil sector. But President Sadyr Zhaparov in October 2021 returned the draft code and a series of accompanying draft laws back to the parliament with the objection. The head of state explained his decision by some shortcomings in documents. However, there is another suggestion that the authorities did not want to allocate money for the new code implementation.
According to the rejected Children’s Code, social services would be established at the level of rural councils with the involvement of 700 new social workers. And the load per one social worker would not exceed 3 thousand children. Currently, one social worker in some district subdivisions of the social service works with over 50 thousand people. He has 25 functions. So, it makes no sense to demand any results from him given this load.
The draft contains another important area of focus – execution of child custody over children of migrant workers.
“When a child is left with relatives, parents must execute a notarised power of attorney. And the notary must call a social worker in charge of children and report that a child at such and such location is left with relatives. Then, the social worker goes to that family and evaluates whether the child is safe, whether the family lives in poverty, or if there are any other risks. If the child is left in improper conditions, the social worker will take appropriate measures,” Nazgul Turdubekova said to CABAR.asia.
According to UNICEF, parents of over 259 thousand children are migrant workers. Potentially, they are in the risk group and are often subjected to violence, abuse, have no proper care. The most tragic stories still remembered by the public have happened to the children of migrant workers.
In 2019, a two-year-old boy in Osh died after beating by his aunt, a two-year-old girl died in Dzhalal-Abad after beating by her grandmother. In 2018, an aunt beat an eighteen-month-old child to death in Chui region. There are dozens of such facts.
Also, the new version of the code provides for the development of foster families and family-type centres as placing children in boarding schools does not solve the problem.
“When a child is placed to an orphanage or a boarding school, the state allocates three to four thousand dollars per year for their support. Today’s policy of the government is to provide expensive yet useless services to children and families,” Turdubekova said.
Today, Kyrgyzstan has over 10 thousand children living in orphanages and boarding schools. 94 per cent of them have at least one biological parent. According to the monitoring study by the Ombudsman Office, such foster children are subjected to abuse both from their teachers and from their peers. Last year, two adolescents became victims of violence in the boarding school.
Moreover, children’s safety in educational institutions has come on the agenda. Since the early 2022, the country has registered a few high-profile cases of violence against children by their teachers. In Kara-Suu district of Osh region, the principal beat an eighth-grader and broke his leg. In the village of Lebedinovka of Chui region, a schoolmistress applied physical force to a pupil.
According to UNICEF, 83 per cent of children in Kyrgyzstan said they faced violence in school. According to the report, while girls and boys are equally at risk of bullying, girls are more likely to become victims of psychological forms of bullying and boys are more at risk of physical violence and threats.
Authorities: Existing laws take every nuance into account, but problems are still there
The ombudswoman for children in the Kyrgyz Republic, Zhyparisa Rysbekova, does not deny the increasing violence rate against children. But, according to her, an important factor should be taken into account – violations are now better identified, and the public reacts to this issue more responsibly.
According to her, many laws and regulations have already been revised to improve timely identification of risks. The new version of the Children’s Code did not contain any special amendments, it only provided for the renaming of some agencies and commissions. The mechanisms specified there are currently in force. However, all laws and regulations should be brought in line with the new version of the Constitution.
Nevertheless, there are many problems in the system, said Rysbekova. One-time events, house-to-house visitations do not bring effective results, whereas preventive measures and outreach work are not enough.
“Therefore, last year the president approved the decree of moral and spiritual development. According to it, the concept has been approved and the plan of events has been approved early this year. The document outlines ideological moments, family education, family policy. All state bodies will be implementing this plan of events,” the ombudswoman for children’s rights said.
The Cabinet of Ministers also tries to increase the number of social workers, revise their functional duties.
According to Rysbekova, they also keep record of children of migrants. The existing system implies mandatory child custody. Now the procedure is being simplified. According to the Ministry of Social Security, in 2021, 93 thousand children whose parents left the country to work were identified. Guardians are being appointed to them.
According to UNICEF, the number of children under 18 reaches 2.1 million in Kyrgyzstan. Every third one of them lives below poverty line; every tenth child has parents in migration. While the state is making efforts to improve the system of children’s protection, each child from these groups is at risk of becoming a victim of violence and abuse.