Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized a decision by city authorities in Almaty to deny a permit for a women’s rights march by Kazakh activists, saying the denial shows the city officials’ indifference to women’s rights.
The women’s rights activists who applied for the permit intended to protest gender-based violence and express their demands for equality, HRW said in a news release on December 10.
Three Kazakh activists, acting on behalf of five feminist groups and activists -- KazFem, Feminita, FemPoint, Svet, and FemAgora -- on November 16 requested permission to hold a peaceful march and rally in Almaty on March 8, International Women’s Day.
One of the activists told HRW that Almaty city officials met with the event organizers about a week after they applied for the permit and strongly advised them to revise their plans citing the “epidemiological situation” in Almaty.
The officials then asked the organizers to withdraw their application, which the activists refused to do.
The Almaty city administration denied the requests on November 26, citing a conflict with other events and “repair and installation works” allegedly scheduled on that day at the same location and time. The activists plan to appeal.
HRW said Kazakh authorities should respect the right to peaceful assembly and grant permission for the event, which is to be held in connection with International Women’s Day.
"Kazakhstan’s authorities should be supporting efforts by feminists and women rights activists to improve protection against gender-based violence and for women’s rights more broadly, not denying them the right to protest peacefully,” said Vika Kim, assistant Central Asia researcher at HRW.
Kim said women in Kazakhstan are demanding gender equality and better protection and support, and these are demands “to be heeded, not hindered.”
Hundreds of Kazakh women annually flee abusive partners, husbands, or other family members and seek help at a limited number of crisis centers and shelters throughout the country, HRW said.
Police and judges fail to respond adequately to allegations of domestic violence and on the rare occasions when cases go to court the penalties for abusers are inadequate, HRW said, adding there also is a lack of professionally trained social workers, psychologists, and lawyers.
