Kazakhstan Law Enforcement Increasing Efforts to Combat Domestic Abuse
In light of a spate of concerning instances of gender-based violence, the Kazakhstani police force is aiming to project a proactive stance against this issue.
At a recent press conference on January 8, Renat Zulkhairov, a high-ranking Interior Ministry official, suggested that data from the latter half of 2023 presents a hopeful trend. From July to December, police initiated administrative cases connected to 64% of domestic violence accusations, a marked increase from the typical 30%. Moreover, twice as many arrests were made for domestic violence infractions, Zulkhairov indicated.
The official reported that over 87,000 protective orders—restraining orders prohibiting domestic violence offenders from contacting their victims and children for a month—were issued throughout the past year. Additionally, courts handed down behavioral orders on approximately 15,000 occasions during the same period—ranging from alcohol bans to evicting violent offenders from their homes.
Zulkhairov hailed these developments as a success.
"Our police are taking measures that foster an ethos of intolerance towards crime in society," he stated.
Legislation was updated in May, enhancing penalties for domestic violence and perceivedly expanding the authority of law enforcement agencies to intervene. As a result, police can now intervene not just when a victim has filed a report, but even when an incident of violence has been recorded. Offenders can no longer easily resort to the mechanism of court reconciliation to end prosecutions, as domestic violence may only rely on mediated resolution on one occasion.
These advances are arguably the result of President Jomart-Kassym Tokayev, who vowed to implement tougher penalties for domestic violence as part of his proposed social reforms in a state-of-the-nation address in September 2022.
However, not everyone paints such an optimistic picture. Independent rights activists claim they see little evidence of meaningful improvement in the situation, as police and judges often still opt to issue only warnings for severe beatings, even after investigation.
The culture of impunity was vividly demonstrated in November, when former top government minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev was arrested in Astana for the murder of his wife, Saltanat Nukenova. Nukenova succumbed to severe beatings. Close associates reported that Bishimbayev frequently physically abused his wife, yet he had never faced consequences for his actions prior to this arrest.
In the context of President Jomart-Kassym Tokayev's proposed social reforms, which include tougher penalties for domestic violence, discussions around the culture of politics in Kazakhstan have shone a light on the broader issue of general-news topics such as crime-and-justice. Independent rights activists argue that despite advances like enhanced penalties and expanded police authority, there is little evidence of meaningful improvement in addressing domestic violence, with instances of police and judges issuing only warnings for severe beatings, as demonstrated by the case of former top government minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev, who was arrested for the murder of his wife and had previously shown a history of domestic violence. In the face of such challenges, the proactive stance against gender-based violence by the Kazakhstani police force remains crucial to the culture of intolerance they seek to cultivate in society.
