On 26-27 August, a final conference on the implementation of the renewed concept of Bus of Solidarity has been held gathering representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Kyrgyz Republic, Training Center for Lawyers, attorneys and gender experts. The event was carried out within the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate all forms of discrimination and gender-based violence against girls and women.

The Bus of Solidarity is a months’ long campaign with attorneys, legal experts and social workers travelling across the country to provide free legal consultations to vulnerable groups of the population. So, the event's main goal was to look back into the experience of campaigning and conducting Bus of Solidarity in 2021. The initiative is being implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic with the support of the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative, implemented by five UN agencies, including UNDP. 

As of now, Bus of Solidarity reached 117 villages and 72 towns of Osh and Naryn oblasts of the Kyrgyz Republic. Overall, 2,272 legal consultations have been provided to citizens of these pilot regions. As experts of Bus of Solidarity were trained on the provision of gender-sensitive services to GBV survivors, 10 cases of domestic violence were identified by the BoS experts during the campaign.

Mr. Sydykov Orozbek Kadyrbekovich, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic highlighted the following during his opening remarks: “We are working on explaining to people that ala-kachuu (kidnapping of women for forced marriage) and domestic violence are against our laws and traditions. In this regard, we included many villages in the schedule of Bus of Solidarity so people in remote regions could receive proper information from specialists”.

Mr. Erkinbek Kasybekov, Assistant Resident Representative of UNDP added the following: “In the first three months of 2021, 59 cases of ala-kachuu have already been registered, and only 8 of them are being investigated. It is alarming that these numbers represent only a fraction of the problem – these are those women and girls who have found the courage to report the violence. To our regret, widespread violence against women and girls has given rise to the assumption that we are dealing with something inevitable or something that cannot be done. This assumption is fundamentally wrong. Despite all the difficulties of the past and this year, UNDP Kyrgyzstan with the funding from the European Union has demonstrated that change is possible”. 

During the event, participants discussed the main results, challenges, and personal experience of working with survivors of domestic violence and elaborated recommendations for improvement. It is expected that these recommendations will lay the groundwork for designing and organizing the upcoming campaigns on free legal aid.

In January 2020, in partnership with the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the EU and UN have launched a multi-year country programme under the global Spotlight Initiative on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls. 

The programme’s vision is to create an environment where all women and girls in Kyrgyzstan, particularly those most vulnerable, live a life free of violence and harmful practices, including child marriage and ala kachuu. The programme comprises a set of integrated interventions in the areas of policies and legislation, strengthening institutions, prevention of violence, provision of services to survivors of violence, collecting quality data, and supporting women’s movement and civil society. The programme is implemented by five UN agencies (UN Women, UNFPA, UNDP, UNICEF and UNODC) under the overall leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator in the Kyrgyz Republic.

All photos from the event are available on Flickr.

Snapshots from the event

Photo: Chyntemir Kalbaev / UNDP Kyrgyzstan