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Human Rights Watch considered the new Kazakh law aimed at protecting women and children from violence as incomplete. The organization published a report on April 23, 2024, assessing the Kazakh government’s efforts to improve the new law aimed at enhancing the protection of women and children from violence, including survivors of domestic violence.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the law on April 15, 2024, aiming to promote women’s rights and enhance their safety.
Human Rights Watch described the new law as “worrisome and incomplete” in making domestic violence a standalone crime in Kazakh criminal law. The new law, known as the “Domestic Violence Law” in Kazakhstan, amends the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, the Marriage and Family Law, and other laws.
Hugh Williamson, Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch, emphasized the importance of prioritizing the protection of women and children from violence by the Kazakh government, affirming that adopting this law is “an important step forward. Williamson stressed the need for more efforts to ensure the protection of women and children from domestic abuse, in line with international human rights standards, including by criminalizing domestic violence as a standalone crime.
According to the report, Kazakh police received 99,026 complaints related to domestic violence in 2023, and courts sentenced 67,270 individuals for administrative offenses. The law reintroduces criminal penalties for “battery” and “intentional infliction of minor bodily harm” against “a person in a helpless state or financially dependent or otherwise reliant on the perpetrator,” the two most commonly used articles in domestic violence cases, imposing stricter penalties on convicted offenders and violators. After both crimes were decriminalized in 2017.
The law also eliminates the option of seeking “reconciliation” between parties as a means of resolving cases of “repeated battery” and “minor physical harm.”
The law lacks a separate definition of crimes occurring within families or domestic relationships, a missed opportunity to address these crimes, including “minor physical harm,” when committed as a form of domestic violence, as a separate offense from other types of violence, and with the severity required by international human rights standards.
The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights affirms that violence against women constitutes a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, hindering or negating women’s enjoyment of these rights and freedoms, expressing concern about the longstanding failure to protect and promote those rights and freedoms in cases of violence against women.
Same Justice organization emphasizes the importance of recognizing that domestic violence is a serious crime against the individual and society according to international law, ensuring women’s full rights and physical and psychological safety.
