A decline in the representation of women has been noted in the Republic’s judicial organs and the courts. Compared with 1999, by 2000 the number of women had fallen from 1,004 to 829, while the number of men, by contrast, had risen from 829 to 1,286.

Table 2

Number of government employees in State executive and administrative organs, by sex

	1999		2000
	Women	Men		Women	Men
Total employed in State administration	8 370	10 995		9 068	9 078
State administration of a general nature of which:	5 123	9 208		6 032	6 960
Legislative work	6	99		7	98
Executive work	5 117	9 109		6 025	6 862
including:
Work of State executive and administrative organs at the … level:	1 572	3 195		2 478	2 849
national	79	192		102	925
regional, district (municipal)	402	767		446	684
rural	1 091	2 236		1 930	1 240
Taxation-related work	821	1 689		816	683
Customs work	205	1 077		202	863
Socio-economic administration	2 519	3 148		2 535	2 566
International work	47	54		40	71
Judicial organs and the courts	1 004	992		829	1 286
Compulsory social insurance	2 196	741		2 167	761

A gender analysis was carried out of the law on government service, which determined that it was gender-neutral. Consequently, proposals were put forward with the aim of incorporating a gender component into normative and legislative instruments regulating the procedure for filling vacant posts and the promotion of government employees. However, no progress has as yet been made in this matter.

The State Commission for the Family, Women and Youth which reported to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and operated in the period 1996-2000 implemented specific measures aimed at improving opportunities for women to advance to positions of authority and at establishing a gender-balanced staffing structure in government bodies. During the pre-election campaign in 2000 an appeal was submitted to the President, Government and Zhogorku Kenesh with a proposal for introducing a mechanism with a provisional quota of places for women into the new electoral law. In addition, it was recommended that potential women election candidates use political parties for their advancement, which implied investing the candidate’s personal resources. A database has been set up on women leaders and activists in the women’s movement, training has been organized for women candidates at the Political Leadership School run by the non-governmental organization “Zavety Manasa in the twenty-first century” and cooperation has been established on a permanent basis with women’s non-governmental organizations in the Republic in order to enhance their potential and resources.

Despite the efforts made, women have been unable to secure a satisfactory number of places as deputies, and a “pyramidal” pattern of gender imbalance is currently to be seen in the legislative branch of the government. Of 105 deputies in the Zhogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic only seven are women, and the proportion of women does not exceed 12 to 13 per cent in the regional and district (municipal) keneshes and 16 per cent at the rural level. On the whole, the situation is characterized by the fact that the women of Kyrgyzstan, who constitute 52 per cent of the electorate, are putting male politicians in power but are not themselves becoming equal partners in decision-making processes.

The party system in Kyrgyzstan is at the formative stage and is not geared toward the advancement of women. The gender component is very poorly reflected in the organizational structure of political parties. Only about half of the parties have women in their ruling bodies, but their numbers are insignificant, ranging from 1.2 per cent to seven per cent. At the same time, not one of the parties views women as a political force capable of determining a strategy for individual and communal action. There are no plans contained in the programmes of the majority of parties to support women’s political involvement, to encourage the promotion of women to leadership posts or to attract women into the parties’ ranks. Women are seen as objects whose lives must be improved from the outside without developing their own civil initiative.

By distilling the vague opinions and views of their members into concrete programmes and demands, non-governmental organizations make it possible for the interests of individuals to be represented to the government, which is very important in circumstances where the party system has not developed. A large proportion of women’s non-governmental organizations are actively involved in the processes of society’s development and cooperate with the authorities in important areas. It is precisely such cooperation between the State Commission for the Family, Women and Youth and women’s non-governmental organizations that has enabled the relatively successful implementation of the national programme “Ayalzat” and the preparation of the new National Plan of Action for Achieving Gender Policy in Kyrgyzstan for the Period 2002-2006. In this way, the collaboration between State organs and non-governmental organizations that was declared several years ago to be one of the priority aims of State policy is gradually changing from informing and consulting to involvement in administration.

The rise in women’s consciousness has manifested itself not only in an increase in the number of women's non-governmental organizations but also in the increased involvement of women in other institutions of civil society, particularly in organizations of a communal type, i.e. local associations. The activity of these organizations is directed toward broadening the opportunities of less well-off sectors of the population through their concerted action to promote further growth at the level of their village or district. 964 communal organizations, with more than 7,000 people working in them, have been set up and are currently operating in all areas of the Republic within the framework of the UNDP programme “Creating the potential to overcome poverty”, and 54 per cent of those involved in the programme are women.

The significant rise in the number of communal organizations, especially in rural areas, is providing the potential labour force which, given appropriate training, can work under contracts with local authorities in virtually all areas of social work. Moreover, it is precisely in local communities that public administration built on genuinely democratic principles emerges. The value of these organizations lies in the fact that they encourage greater confidence in people who find themselves at the bottom of the social pyramid, both in dealings with each other and with the authorities. It also lies in the fact that working in these organizations shapes new leaders from civil society who are then potential candidates for promotion to the executive and legislative branches of government. In this way, non-governmental and communal organizations open up an additional route by which women may take up positions in administrative bodies.

Article 8. International representation and involvement

24 women currently work in Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices abroad and they make up 10 per cent of the total number of staff employed there. Women occupy the following posts:

1.Consul General – 1

2.Counsellor – 4

3.First Secretary – 4

4.Second Secretary – 1

5.Attaché – 4

6.Technical posts – 10

In terms of ethnic composition, the women include Kyrgyz, Russians and Dungans. The professions represented include specialists in the field of international relations, doctors, lawyers, economists and teachers.

In the UN missions located in Kyrgyzstan:

1.UNFPA – of the nine staff, six are women, including two managers, two secretaries and an accountant;

2.UNICEF – of the 15 staff, eight are women, including four administrators, three programme assistants and a secretary.

3.UNDP – of the 56 staff, 31 are women, including two administrators and 27 midle-ranking women executives (coordinators, assistants, secretaries, etc.)

Of the 48 staff at the representative office of the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation, 22 are women, including two administrators, 18 middle-ranking executives (coordinators, assistants) and two technical workers.

Article 9. Nationality

No changes have occurred in this area over the period just ended.

Article 10. Education

The situation which has emerged in Kyrgyzstan with regard to the education of women continues to remain stable. The proportion of girls among primary school pupils stands at 48.6 per cent and among secondary school pupils at 53.6 per cent. 36 per cent of students in the system of vocational training, which trains specialists for 125 professions in commerce and catering, the clothing industry and consumer services, transport and the printing industry, are girls. Educational institutions in this system have increased markedly the training of specialists for the service sector in response to structural changes taking place in the economy. Training has been introduced in new occupations such as, for example, farmer/farm manager, including training girls on a separate introductory course in farm management with supplementary skills in sewing, cookery and driving.

Uniform standards have been defined for training women specialists in traditional crafts, in particular, saima, kurak, uz koldor (cutters, carpet-weavers, master craftsmen in the manufacture of leather goods), manufacturers of national drinks, manufacturers of yurts and others. Based at vocational colleges, short courses are organized jointly with the employment services to train women in the following occupations: hairdresser, accountant, tailor, seamstress and embroiderer.

Table 3

Students of secondary specialized educational institutions at the commencement of the 2000/2001 academic year, by category of specialisation

	As percentage of total		Proportion, in percent
	Women	Men		Women	Men
Total	100.0	100.0		65.3	34.7
Economics and planning	20.6	21.2		64.6	35.4
Law and document management	0.8	1.6		49.5	50.5
Education	14.1	3.1		89.6	10.4
Health care	39.9	9.8		88.4	11.6
Culture and the arts	4.7	5.9		60.4	39.6
Ecology and protection of the environment	0.1	2.1		11.3	88.7
Mining engineering	5.6	3.4		75.5	24.5
Power engineering	0.2	0.3		47.5	52.5
Mechanical engineering and metal-working	0.3	3.5		15.2	84.8
Aviation technology		0.7			100.0
Automotive and tractor engineering	0.0	5.9		0.5	99.5
Operation, servicing and repair of machinery and equipment	0.0	3.6		0.9	99.1
Instrument engineering and operation of instruments and apparatus	0.1	0.8		25.0	75.0
Control engineering and operation of automation equipment	0.0	1.4		3.7	96.3
Computer technology and automated systems	0.3	1.6		23.1	76.9
Radio engineering and communications	1.2	2.5		47.6	52.4
Transport operation	0.2	4.3		7.7	92.3
Forest exploitation and wood processing	0.1	0.7		16.0	84.0
Food technology	3.0	2.6		68.6	31.4
Consumer goods technology	3.8	0.2		97.5	2.5
Architecture and construction	0.8	7.4		17.2	82.8
Geodesics and cartography	0.2	0.6		15.9	84.1
Agriculture and forestry	1.5	14.5		15.9	84.1
Commodity research and sales organization	2.2	1.5		73.3	26.7
Metrology, standardization and quality control	-	0.2		-	100.0
Commercial activity	0.2	0.6		43.3	56.7

65.3 per cent of students at secondary specialized educational institutions and 50.7 per cent of students at higher educational institutions are girls. The majority of girls in higher educational institutions traditionally choose an occupation in the fields of education and health care (where they make up 80.4 per cent and 62.1 per cent of students, respectively) though they already account for 51.6 per cent of those entering business and administration. Girls account for 68.6 per cent of humanities students and 60.9 per cent of those studying mathematical sciences. A low proportion of girls is noted among students opting for specializations such as transport (4.3 per cent), veterinary science (18.6 per cent) and construction (21.1 per cent). Approximately the same ratios can be seen in the distribution of postgraduate students across the branches of science. On the whole, the traditional pattern of distribution of the sexes across the sectors of the economy remains, with women and girls typically segregated into occupations in low-profit sectors.

Table 4Postgraduate students in 2000, by branch of science and by sex

Branch of science	Distribution by sex
Women	Men	Women	Men
Total
Number of persons	1 046	642
Percentage	100	100	62.0	38.0
Including, by branch of science:
Physics/mathematics	5.6	7.5	55.1	44.9
Chemistry	3.4	1.3	81.8	18.2
Biology	3.3	3.1	63.0	37.0
Geology/mineralogy	1.1	3.6	33.3	66.7
Technical sciences	10.7	26.0	40.1	59.9
Agriculture	0.9	3.3	30.0	70.0
History	3.8	4.7	57.1	42.9
Economics	13.3	15.0	59.2	40.8
Philosophy	4.1	1.7	79.6	20.4
Philology	19.7	4.7	87.3	12.7
Geography	3.2	3.7	57.9	42.1
Law	5.1	8.7	48.6	51.4
Education	10.6	2.5	87.4	12.6
Medicine	6.5	7.9	57.1	42.9
Pharmacology	0.2	–	100.0	–
Veterinary science	0.3	1.1	30.0	70.0
History of art	2.9	1.7	73.2	26.8
Architecture	0.2	1.3	20.0	80.0
Psychology	1.4	0.3	88.2	11.8
Sociology	1.5	0.6	80.0	20.0
Politics	2.0	1.3	72.4	27.6
Cultural studies	0.2	0.0	100	0.0

Women make up a significant majority (75.6 per cent) of secondary school teachers, but the proportion of women among teachers at higher educational institutions is approximately half this (36.8 per cent). The number of women doctors of science in 2001 was 6.5 per cent higher than in 2000, reaching 44.6 per cent of the total.

Government Regulation No. 259 of 29 April 2002 approved the Development Plan for Education in the Kyrgyz Republic until 2010, in which the main principle behind the direction of reforms in the education system was defined as “the accessibility of high-quality education, i.e. the right of every person to receive a high-quality education at the various levels irrespective of their social position, sex, nationality and race”. It also stated that it was essential to increase the attention given to gender issues in the process of educating and raising the younger generation. Courses in gender orientation have already been introduced into the curricula of a number of higher educational institutions: the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic University, the American University in Kyrgyzstan and the Bishkek Humanitarian University. In line with the Development Plan, the transition to a 12-year secondary education has begun.

Within the framework of the international “Education for all” movement, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic drew up in 2002 a National Plan of Action, which devotes a considerable amount of space to issues surrounding the gender education of young people. As part of the reform of the education system of the Kyrgyz republic, there are provisions for developing and integrating academic standards into courses on “Ensuring a healthy lifestyle”, “Lessons in health”, etc., which will include sections on gender issues. With backing from the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation, an experimental programme is already being implemented in a number of pilot schools under the project “Empowered Education” which is being used to help eradicate functional illiteracy among boys and girls and to teach them about specific aspects of family life and relations between the sexes. Defined gender concepts have also been included in the curriculum for the course on “The individual and society”. Nonetheless, in order to obtain more significant results in rooting out gender stereotypes from school education it will be necessary to carry out a gender analysis of school textbooks and manuals.

Article 11. Employment

The number of people of working age in the Republic in 2001 stood at 2,686,600. Of those who were economically active, 65.3 per cent were women. Gender analysis of the distribution of the population by principal employment shows that in Kyrgyzstan there is both horizontal occupational segregation, i.e. women and men choose spheres of employment that are traditional for their sex, and vertical occupational segregation, i.e. women and men are employed in one sphere of activity but at different levels on the employment ladder.

Examination of the sectoral pattern of employment shows that women occupy more than 70 per cent of jobs in the area of health care and social service provision, two thirds of jobs in education and about half the jobs in hotel services. The employment of women remains quite high in agriculture (46.5 per cent), manufacturing industry (40.3 per cent) and commerce (45.7 per cent), while marked male domination of jobs has emerged in the mining industry, power engineering, construction, transport and public administration.

Table 5

Number of women and men employed in the economy in 2000, by type of economic activity

			Proportion, in percent
	Women	Men	Women	Men
Employed in the economy – total, in 000s Of which, as percentage of total:	784.6	983.8	44.4	55.6
Agriculture, hunting and forestry	54.8	51.7	45.8	54.2
Mining industry	0.1	0.8	12.2	87.8
Manufacturing industry	5.8	6.9	40.3	59.7
Production and distribution of electricity, steam, gas and hot water	0.6	1.6	23.1	76.9
Construction	0.7	3.8	13.3	86.7
Commerce, automotive repairs, household articles and articles for personal use	10.7	10.6	44.5	55.5
Hotel and restaurant services	0.9	0.6	51.5	48.5
Transport and communications	1.5	5.2	18.9	81.1
Finance	0.4	0.4	47.1	52.9
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers	1.3	1.9	34.6	65.4
Public administration	1.8	5.2	21.7	78.3
Education	11.8	5.3	64.0	36.0
Health care and social services	7.6	2.6	70.2	29.8
Provision of communal, social and personal services	1.8	3.1	31.6	68.4
Domestic housekeeping services	0.2	0.4	29.0	71.0

The distribution of the employed population by employment status shows that in towns and cities the majority of people work as employees, the proportion being greater among women (75.1 per cent) than among men (67.5 per cent). Women make up more than 38 per cent of people working individually on a self-employed basis, 17.7 per cent of proprietors of own businesses and farms and 46.3 per cent of those helping family members. In the self-employed sector, women are concentrated in the areas of educational, medical and social service provision, clothing manufacture, restaurant and hotel services, commerce and the repair of household articles.

Table 6.

Women and men working on a self-employed basis, by individual type of economic activity

	Proportion, in percent
	Women	Men	Women	Men
Total	64 544	102 287	38.7	61.3
Agriculture, hunting and forestry	1 742	3 836	31.2	68.8
Manufacturing industry	3 611	3 404	51.5	48.5
Construction	225	3 696	5.7	94.3
Automotive and motorcycle trade, technical servicing and repair	36	1 432	2.5	97.5
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of household articles	55 735	72 846	43.3	56.7
Hotels and restaurants	819	1 350	37.8	62.2
Transport	61	4 927	1.2	98.8
Financial activity	24	94	20.3	79.7
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers	66	302	17.9	82.1
Education	106	49	68.4	31.6
Health care and the provision of social services	87	99	46.8	53.2
Provision of communal, social and personal services	1 607	8 753	15.5	84.5
Domestic housekeeping services	159	1 045	13.2	86.8

Table 7

Wome n and men who are proprietors of their own businesses and peasant (farm) holdings, by individual type of economic activity

			Proportion, in percent
Women	Men	Women	Men
Total	8 108	37 602	17.7	82.3
Agriculture, hunting and forestry	5 860	32 679	15.2	84.8
Manufacturing industry	514	1 089	32.1	67.9
Construction	46	340	11.9	88.1
Automotive and motorcycle trade, technical servicing and repair	22	358	5.8	94.2
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of household articles	784	1 364	36.5	63.5
Hotels and restaurants	429	533	44.6	55.4
Transport and communications	41	217	15.9	84.1
Financial activity	24	72	25.0	75.0
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers	47	125	27.3	72.7
Education	34	32	51.5	48.5
Health care and the provision of social services	31	73	29.8	70.2
Provision of communal, social and personal services	221	546	28.8	71.2

The proportion of women employed in unfavourable working conditions had declined slightly by 2000 and stood at an average of 26.7 per cent, but in traditionally “women’s” sectors it is significantly higher – 52 per cent in light industry, for example, and 50 per cent in the food industry. At the same time, the gap in wages between women and men continues to be significant and varies according to region, with men’s wages being from 30 to 90 per cent higher.

Table 8

Average wages of men and women, by type of economic activity

Type of economic activity	Average wage, in som		Women’s wages as a percentage of men’s wages
Women	Men
Total Including, by type of activity:	964.6	1 427.5		67.6
Agriculture, hunting and forestry	569.8	670.1		85.0
Fish farming	476.5	661.0		72.1
Mining industry	1 787.0	2 480.2		72.1
Manufacturing industry	1 717.4	2 098.1		81.9
Production and distribution of electricity, gas, steam and hot water	1 682.3	1 797.9		93.6
Construction	1 528.5	1 835.2		83.3
Trading and repair of motor vehicles, household articles and articles for personal use	947.0	1 103.5		85.8
Provision of restaurant and hotel services	1 673.8	4 165.5		40.2
Transport and communications	1 826.5	1 743.4		104.8
Finance	3 324.7	4 447.7		74.8
Real estate trading, leasing and the provision of services to consumers	1 052.6	1 251.7		84.1
Public administration	1 703.0	1 858.6		91.6
Education	770.0	813.4		94.7
Health care and the provision of social services	577.0	717.8		80.4
Provision of communal, social and personal services	877.9	986.5		89.0

The results of a study conducted by UNFPA into the amounts of time spent on housework are arousing marked interest. In Kyrgyzstan, housework is to a significant extent women’s work since women devote on average four to five hours each day to housework, spending 19 per cent of each twenty-four-hour period on it. The time spent by men is less than five per cent and amounts to a little over one hour.

The types of housework carried out by men and women also follow different patterns. Men are keener on shopping for food (30 per cent of time spent on housework) and on carrying out household repairs (31 per cent). They devote 11 to 12 per cent of their time to children and grandchildren. The pattern of housework carried out by women is more varied and depends on the place of residence, the composition of the family and on the women’s employment. Working women in towns and cities spend 16 per cent of their housework time on shopping (on Sundays this proportion rises to 23.6 per cent). The remaining time (84 per cent) is spent on cooking (29 per cent), washing up (9 per cent), washing and ironing (14 per cent), housecleaning (12.7 per cent), taking care of children and grandchildren (10.4 per cent). For women in rural areas, shopping takes up two thirds of the time that it takes for women in towns and cities. At the same time, the amount of time spent on cooking, washing up, cleaning the area around the house and keeping the house warm is higher.

Female unemployment caused by economic factors is rising steadily. Thus, whereas in 1999 the level of unemployment among women stood at 8.9 per cent, by 2000 it was 9.5 per cent. 33,400 women, constituting 53.3 per cent of the total number of unemployed citizens, are registered as unemployed at State Employment Service offices, and of these, 15,000 unemployed women (45 per cent) live in rural areas. The large gulf in the level of unemployment between women and men is typical for all age groups but is most marked in the 30-34 age group (15.2 per cent as against 7.3 per cent). To a significant extent, female unemployment in Kyrgyzstan is related to the fact that enterprises which have acquired a labour surplus as a result of the downturn in production and of cuts in projects in the service sector are making women redundant without good grounds for doing so. In particular, 64 per cent of the total number of persons released from employment as a result of structural reforms in the economy have been women, who, together with persons of pensionable and pre-pensionable age, are the first to be affected by staffing cuts in enterprises and organizations or to leave voluntarily following extended periods of unpaid leave or employment on part-time terms.

The State Employment Service is currently applying a policy of active measures in the labour market to resolve issues surrounding the job placement and employment status of women, rather than restricting itself to passive measures, i.e. to paying out unemployment benefit. These include approaches such as promoting the development of self-employed activity (small loans programme), organizing training and retraining in occupations for which there is a need in enterprises and organizations in the region concerned and organizing publicly funded projects as forms of temporary employment for women. In this regard, statistics show that almost 50 per cent of the women who have undergone training are able to find a job. The Centre for the Support of Small Business and Promotion of Employment of Unemployed Citizens, which has operated in Bishkek since 2000, may be cited as an example here. 82 per cent of those working at the Centre are women who have undergone retraining and are employed in activities such as clothing manufacture, the production of pasta products, the vacuum packaging of foodstuffs, the workshop-based production of national costumes and the baking of bread.

The difficulty of solving the problems of women’s employment is compounded by the mass migration of people from rural areas to towns and cities. In connection with this, the employment service is introducing new forms of labour market regulation. Thus, a Temporary Job Placement Department, placing unemployed people in temporary jobs, and a Mobile Employment Service, providing services for unemployed people at their place of residence, have operated in Bishkek since 1997.

A category of “long-term unemployed” is currently being identified among unemployed citizens in the Kyrgyz Republic, and special work is being carried out with this group. In towns in the Chu region, “Jobseekers’ Clubs” are being run for them by the employment services. Practice has shown that the bulk of the people attending the clubs are women. The clubs provide assistance to long-term unemployed citizens in acquiring job-seeking skills and provide them with practical opportunities for putting the knowledge they have acquired to good use.

The National Young People’s Employment Exchange and its branch offices provide substantial assistance in helping young unemployed women to find jobs and in extending the range of information services available for young people. Thus, in 2002 alone, more than 1,500 people, including about 800 girls and young women, have contacted the Exchange, and 292 of these women have been placed in jobs. Help in establishing contacts with employers and in completing the task more promptly is also provided by the monthly job vacancy markets run by the young people’s employment exchanges in the Republic. About 50 per cent of the clients at job-vacancy markets are women.

However, providing occupational retraining and job placements will not solve the strategic task of achieving a gender balance in the employment sector. Frequently, the list of occupations to train adults for is geared primarily to “urban requirements” such as beautician, hairdresser, secretary/assistant, bookkeeper, and specialists in the clothing and food industries. It is obvious that for the majority of rural women occupations such as these are completely lacking in prospects. Moreover, the proposed choice of occupations in which to retrain maintains and reinforces the traditional distribution of labour in the various industries and the occupational segregation of women in such areas as the clothing industry, traditional handicrafts and the service sector.

Data showing the trends (1999-2002) in the number of women referred for training and in the number of women placed in jobs after training is presented in Appendix 1. It should be pointed out that the percentage of women referred for training remains consistently within the 59 to 60 per cent range. The maximum proportion of women placed in jobs after training has been 73.2 per cent, in 2001. However, in the Republic as a whole, in the first three months of 2002 alone more than 65 per cent of women had already been referred for occupational training, and of these, 77 per cent completed their training and were able to be placed in jobs.

The drastic decline in the formal sector’s share of the economy is a factor which reduces the opportunity for retraining programmes to exert a real influence in lowering the level of unemployment among women. Against this background, a proportion of women are taking the economic initiative and pouring into the informal labour market. This includes working in illegal sewing workshops, for example. The clothing industry has shown itself to be highly adaptable and flexible in liberalized market conditions: dozens of sewing workshops operate in the capital and a kind of specialization has emerged. “Shuttle traders” travel from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia for articles sewn in Kyrgyzstan. Clothing items produced by Kyrgyz women have squeezed out Chinese and Turkish products on the Central Asian markets.

However, government statistics do not take into account the number of citizens employed in this informal sector of the economy, and no representative scientific survey of the labour market has been conducted in the Republic.

One of the mechanisms for equalizing the economic opportunities for women and the real chances for increasing the level of employment among women is the granting of loans. As part of government programmes to develop enterprise and business initiative in order to improve the economic situation of women in the Republic, the following programme documents are being implemented:

Programme of measures for the occupational retraining of government employees released from employment and for their integration in the processes of development of the Kyrgyz Republic, ratified by Government Regulation No. 368 of 23 July 2001.

State programme for the development of enterprise in the Kyrgyz Republic for the period 2001-2003, ratified by Government Regulation No. 448 of 15 August 2001.

State plan for the development of small towns and urban settlements in the Kyrgyz Republic, ratified by Government Regulation No. 843 of 31 December 2001.

Priority in these programmes is given to supporting entrepreneurs in high-altitude districts of the Republic, for example, by lowering the interest rates on the loans they receive. With support from the State Commission for the Development of Enterprise reporting to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, 156 women entrepreneurs were able to obtain financing for private projects in 2001 through various lines of credit, thereby accounting for 41.01 per cent of the total amount of credit supplied. Organizations such as the Kyrgyz Agricultural Finance Corporation, the Central Asian American Enterprise Support Fund, the Asian credit company “CrossRoads”, the German Development Bank KfW, FINCA-Kyrgyzstan and the Swiss association “Helvetas” are also involved in the granting of loans in Kyrgyzstan.

But the majority of credit lines attracted to Kyrgyzstan are often aimed at a distinct target group, for example, inhabitants of high-altitude districts or districts that have suffered from natural disasters, and, for this reason, investment resources for developing entrepreneurial activity among women remain inadequate.

Article 12. Equal access to medical services

The main outcomes of the reforms in the health-care sector over the 1996-2000 period have been: the restructuring of the network of systems providing medical aid, the establishment of a State policy on the supply of medicines, the introduction of compulsory medical insurance and of the institute of family medicine, the approval and introduction of new methods of financing using information technologies, the preparation of the health-care sector for eventual division between the “purchasers” and the “suppliers” of medical services based on market relations and the active involvement of the medical community and of the Kyrgyz population in the reform process. At the present time, plans have been drawn up for rationalising medical institutions for the period 2001-2003, based on axing institutions that duplicate the work of others, are relatively inefficient or fail to match up to modern requirements in terms of their technical equipment.

In addition to this, the level of financing of the health-care sector out of the national budget has fallen sharply in recent years from 3.7 per cent of GDP to 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2001. As a result, the volume of funds allocated from the State budget covers only 50 per cent of the sector’s actual requirements. The other half of the cost of medical services is in practice covered by the patient. The financial inability of many groups in the population (the disabled, pensioners and impoverished, large and partial families) to pay for these services is the main factor restricting access to medical services.

The introduction in the Republic of compulsory medical insurance will increase the availability of medical aid to the population. By 2002, 83.7 per cent of the population was already covered by compulsory medical insurance, which has established the preconditions for ensuring the social protection of nearly all vulnerable groups in the population.

By 2000, the birth rate in Kyrgyzstan had fallen to 19.7 per 1,000, from 23.6 per 1,000 in 1996, and the reduction in the number of births over this period was 35.9 per cent, with women currently giving birth to an average of 2.6 children. At the same time, relatively better-off women in towns and cities give birth to 70 per cent fewer children than their rural counterparts. The downward trend in the birth rate can also be traced by comparing age categories: whereas women between 60 and 64 years of age have an average of 5.0 children and those between 40 and 59 years of age 4.3 children, women between 30 and 39 years have on average only 3.0 children. Against the background of the marked reduction in the birth rate, the figures for infant mortality and mortality of women in childbirth remain alarmingly high.

Table 9

Infant mortality, by region (per 1,000 live births)

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2 months 2002
Kyrgyz Republic	25.9	28.2	26.2	22.7	22.6	21.6	21.5
Batken	28.9	29.6	30.4	26.3	27.6	25.0	30.6
Jalal-Abad	24.2	27.8	21.3	19.4	18.3	18.8	19.2
Issyk-Kul	23.1	30.5	21.8	19.5	18.1	16.7	17.7
Naryn	22.5	28.9	21.2	18.3	18.5	22.0	25.4
Osh	30.2	29.6	32.2	27.7	25.5	24.0	19.9
Talas	20.7	29.0	19.2	23.1	23.1	20.2	20.3
Chu	17.0	19.8	20.1	16.4	19.4	16.9	17.4
Bishkek, city (city council)	30.3	30.4	29.0	23.8	27.5	27.4	29.1

Normal birth occurs in only 40.3 per cent of cases. In less prosperous regions (Talas and Batken) this figure has dropped to between 19 and 24 per cent. Although the level of maternal mortality fell in the period from 1990 to 2001 by 38.6 per cent and stands at 49.9, it is nonetheless almost 2.5 times the European average. Neonatal mortality has fallen in the last five years (1996 to 2001) and reached 21.6 per 1,000 births in 2001.

Table 10.

Maternal morality (per 100,000 live births)

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Republic	65.0	76.4	54.7	45.9	46.5	49.9
Bishkek, city	82.8	138.7	53.1	78.0	91.07	38.5
Chu	25.1	54.0	27.5	35.3	36.5	74.9
Talas	19.1	44.8	40.7	20.5	43.3	40.0
Naryn	132.4	101.9	81.8	58.5	32.4	129.3
Issyk-Kul	103.8	169.7	47.7	58.4	59.9	70.1
Osh	50.9	60.4	51.4	30.0	30.0	33.9
Batken	–	–	–	–	32.2	31.3
Jalal-Abad	83.5	60.8	63.5	52.9	48.6	33.0

Among the leading causes of infant mortality are respiratory disorders, perinatal complications and infectious and parasitic diseases. A decline in the quality and accessibility of conventional medical services means that people are increasingly either turning to providers of traditional or folk medicine for help or else treating themselves.

While it is true that women in childbirth and neonates fall within a high-risk category, society and the State are failing to take adequate measures to reduce the risk to their lives and health to an acceptable level. High infant mortality is also caused by the fact that more than 60 per cent of families in rural areas are unable to meet children’s minimum requirements in terms of basic food products. The situation is similar in many urban families. In 2000, 6.6 per cent of children in Kyrgyzstan aged from one to six years were suffering from emaciation, with girls making up the highest proportion of underweight children observed among five-year-olds.

Health indicators for women of childbearing age have worsened by comparison with figures for the preceding period. Anaemia during pregnancy affects on average 54.7 per cent of women for the country as a whole, reaching between 70 and 90 per cent in the most socially and economically disadvantaged regions. Diseases of the urino-genital system were recorded among 13.5 per cent of women and gestosis among 5.7 per cent but in some regions these figures reach as high as 30 per cent (Talas). It is precisely gestosis, sepsis, abortions and haemorrhages that are the principal causes of maternal mortality. Another set of causes are early pregnancy, high natality and short birth intervals. To these must also be added unqualified or inadequate medical assistance, since, according to experts, many of the cases of maternal mortality could have been prevented. The break-up of the former system of medical care, the shortage of resources and the lack of transport are forcing a growing number of rural women to give birth at home.

The country has 890 obstetricians/gynaecologists and family planning service workers and health visitors, as well as more than 1,600 paediatricians, though the level of pay of medical personnel is one of the lowest in the public sector. The health service’s current resources cannot guarantee high-quality medical care for pregnant women, and its material and equipment resources are insufficient to meet demands currently placed on institutions providing specialized care for women. Unfortunately, the number of doctors does not guarantee the standard of a service. In this particular case, relative to its population of five million there are five times more doctors in Kyrgyzstan than in Denmark, but the standard of the medical service in Kyrgyzstan cannot possibly be compared with that of Denmark.

On the basis of the law on the reproductive rights of citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic which was adopted on 20 December 1999, the termination of pregnancy in specialized medical institutions is permitted as a method of family planning. These services are provided free of charge for some categories (students, impoverished women, etc.). Cases of illegal abortion are detected only after medical institutions have been approached following complications, and up to several dozen of these are recorded each year. Two women died from illegal abortion in 2001. In total, more than 15 to 20 thousand abortions are carried out each year. From 1996 to 2001 there was a very significant fall in the number of abortions per annum, from 24,187 to 15,933. But the fact that 10 per cent of abortions were carried out on women under 19 years of age is a cause for alarm.

Table 11.

Number of abortions carried out in Kyrgyzstan

1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
24 187	21 671	19 481	17 890	15 933	15 979

Table 12.

Breakdown of abortions by type

	1999	2000	2001
1.	Mini-abortions (control of menstrual cycle)	7 675	6 111	7 411
2.	Abortions up to 12 weeks	61.6	50.7	55.9
		11 013	8 082	8 936
3.	Artificial abortions	41.3	39.9	36.8
		7 382	6 358	5 877
4.	Terminations of pregnancy between 22 and 26 weeks	10.1	5.3	3.4
		1 801	842	550
5.	Illegal abortions	0.2	0.3	0.1
		31	46	12

Ministry of Health Decree No. 363 of 28 October 2000 ratified the National Programme for the Protection of Reproductive Health, under which joint programmes are being implemented with international organizations on protecting the reproductive health of the population. These include, for example, the TsARAK project “Protection of the health of the mother and child” (UNICEF), the projects “Establishment of a local infrastructure in the area of reproductive health and family planning”, “System for the supply and distribution of contraceptives” and “Development and dissemination of informational and educational materials on issues of reproductive health” (UNFPA), and Procter & Gamble’s programme on hygiene for teenage girls. Implementation of these programmes has brought about an increase in awareness among the population about the various methods of contraception, which has been reflected in a reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions in a number of regions. The results of monitoring by UNFPA indicate that 65.5 per cent of women in towns and cities and 53.9 per cent of women in rural areas use contraceptive devices. Unfortunately, a reduction has been observed in the volume of contraceptives supplied through international humanitarian aid channels, and this will actually diminish their use, with all the attendant consequences.

In order to implement measures to protect the reproductive health of women, existing normative documents have been revised to take into account WHO recommendations on the “Mother and Child” programme, and a programme for the period 2000-2004 has been prepared jointly with UNICEF on “Survival, development and protection of mother and child”. A national programme to combat acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal illnesses and anaemia has been adapted, and the State Programme for the Period 2001-2005 for the Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Diseases Transmitted by way of Injection, ratified by Government Decree No. 785 of 13 December 2002, has come into operation.

In total, 18.5 million dollars were spent between 1996 and 2000 on the “Manas” programme, which was directed toward reforming health care. It has been successful in improving some indicators, but, on the whole, the situation remains significantly worse than during Soviet times. In particular, the incidence of socially significant diseases, such as tuberculosis, iodine-deficiency-induced illnesses, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, is rising.

At the start of 2002, 6,284 people had tuberculosis, and nearly 43 per cent of them were women. Of individuals infected with HIV, 16 were women. The deterioration in the standard of medical care is being aggravated by the spread of poverty and the rise in alcoholism and drug addiction, which are taking on menacing proportions. Over the last three years alone, (1999-2001) the number of persons abusing alcohol and officially registered as such, more than 10 per cent of whom were women, grew by 10.8 per cent. Over the same period, the number of persons on the register of drug addicts grew by 10.9 per cent, and of these, 10.8 per cent were women. Of especial concern are the figures for the number of persons diagnosed for the first time as having an alcohol dependency. Over the three years their number increased by 276 per cent, and among women the increase was by 326 per cent.

The production and import of alcohol products (including illegal products), the trafficking of drugs through Kyrgyzstan and the spread of drugs have assumed proportions vastly in excess of those that existed in the past, but measures to combat them are often ineffective because of a certain amount of corruption and the lack of competence of government bodies. At the same time, analysis of the crime situation shows that a direct dependency exists between the level of alcoholism and drug addiction in society and the level of violence against women and the incitement of women to prostitution. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that not only is society becoming more aggressive toward its most vulnerable and defenceless sections, but the victims of alcoholism and drug addiction themselves are increasingly turning to crime.

Note must also be taken of the menacing situation that has developed in places of imprisonment in terms of the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis and STDs. In the women's colony (OP 36/2) alone, five of the 694 convicts were infected with HIV, 96 were suffering from venereal diseases and 11 had tuberculosis.

The Republic has a shortage of specialist literature and programmes on the subjects of establishing a healthy lifestyle, raising a family and family planning. In order to improve the situation in this area, work at the institutional level has been intensified. At the Kyrgyz Scientific Centre for Human Reproduction a department has been set up to provide medical and social assistance for young people on issues of sex education and health protection, and various centres have been opened for work with teenagers. A large number of non-governmental organizations are also working on this problem in different regions of the Republic. Worthy of special mention among these is the Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Kyrgyzstan, a non-governmental organization for professionals in the field.

As part of the reform of the education system, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic has begun work on drawing up educational standards, including a “healthy lifestyle” component. This component is being developed jointly with health care bodies and includes such subjects as “Establishing a healthy lifestyle”, “Ensuring the safety of everyday activities” and “Lessons in health”, which students in classes 1 to 12 will be taught for one hour per week (34 hours a year). In addition, in order to maintain and improve the health of schoolchildren and young people and to spread awareness among them about a healthy lifestyle, the “Healthy Schools” project was launched nationally, commencing in 2002. Under the project, secondary school teachers, school doctors, psychologists and educationalists will be trained or retrained for work on preventing drug addiction, smoking, alcoholism and HIV/AIDS/STDs, on involving parents and local communities in conducting information campaigns and various other actions and on helping to promote physical culture and sport.

Article 13. Social and economic benefits

State support is provided for women and men in Kyrgyzstan on the same general grounds, those of impoverishment and incapacity for work. The legislative basis of social support is the law on State financial assistance which was adopted in 1998. Those entitled to receive financial assistance include disabled persons, including children, who lack entitlement to pension provision, persons disabled since childhood and impoverished families (with account being taken of whether their income is lower than the guaranteed minimum level of consumption for each member of the family). Social support is provided in the form of State allowances (impoverishment allowances and social allowances), concessions for specific categories of citizens and social services (in-patient care in residential homes and out-patient services at home for people living alone and for elderly people). Work is being carried out in Kyrgyzstan on setting up a social passport system covering the entire population with the aims of establishing a reliable database on impoverished families and subsequently drawing up individual programmes for raising them out of poverty.

In Kyrgyzstan, where the 17.8 per cent of the population live in extreme poverty and 53.2 per cent in poverty, one citizen in ten receives State financial assistance and one family in three benefits from concessions of one kind or another. For example, 151,600 families, of which 2,800 are partial families comprising single mothers or fathers with between one and three children, receive an impoverishment allowance. Recipients of social benefits in the Republic number about 43,300, and include 168 heroine-mothers, 3,400 persons who have reached pensionable age and do not have a record of work and 17,900 disabled persons who lack entitlement to pension provision. The system for the provision of social concessions in the Republic remains very extensive, with more than 30 types of concession applicable to 36 categories of citizens, but from 2000 there will be an active move to streamline concessions and switch them to a targeted system. Impoverished families are given an allowance for heating, hot water, gas and electricity and are granted entitlement to medical services at concessionary rates. For example, 200,000 families were entitled to medical services at concessionary rates in 2000, which required expenditure from the budget amounting to 450 million som.

Under the law on State financial assistance, children are granted the following types of social benefits:

–for disabled children suffering from infantile cerebral paralysis - 300 per cent of the guaranteed minimum level of consumption (GMLC);

–for HIV-infected children or children suffering from AIDS - 225 per cent of the GMLC;

–for disabled children - 225 per cent of the GMLC;

–for children where there is a loss of provider – 150 per cent of the GMLC;

–for children who have lost both parents (full orphans) - 225 per cent of the GMLC.

As well as this, but taking into account an assessment of the family income (provided that the family’s average per capita income does not exceed the GMLC), children are granted the following allowances:

–a lump-sum payment on the birth of a child – 300 per cent of the GMLC;

–for children under 18 months - 100 per cent of the GMLC;

–for twins - 100 per cent of the GMLC;

–for triplets and higher multiple births - 150 per cent of the GMLC;

–a lump-sum monthly allowance for children – the total amount being the absolute difference between the GMLC and the family’s average per capita income.

Unfortunately, these are very small allowances since until 1 April 2000 the GMLC stood at 100 som, which was approximately equivalent to $US 2, and it has now been increased to 120 som. For comparison it should be pointed out that the real cost of the consumer goods basket in Kyrgyzstan in 2001 stood at approximately 1,200 som. Annex 2 presents data showing the trend (1999-2001) in the number of recipients of allowances for children among impoverished families and citizens in the Republic.

The introduction in Kyrgyzstan of a supplementary compulsory medical insurance scheme for the provision of medicines at the primary level began in August 2000. Reimbursing expenditure on medicines at the primary level promotes the economic availability of medicines to the population and functions as a market mechanism for lowering the prices of medicines.

From January 1999, the required age for receiving a pension was raised in Kyrgyzstan from 55 to 58 for women and from 60 to 63 for men. The rise is being implemented gradually, on an incremental basis, and is scheduled for completion by 2007. Under this arrangement, women in Kyrgyzstan will enjoy certain privileges: as before, they will retire five years earlier than men, and thus need a shorter insurance contribution record. Women living in high altitudes may retire 10 years earlier than the age generally fixed for retirement if they have an insurance contribution record of 12 years in high altitudes, have given birth to three or more children and have raised them until the age of eight. Normally, mothers who have given birth to five or more children and have raised them to the age of eight years need a 15-year insurance contribution record and may retire five years earlier.There are also concessions for the mothers of disabled children, notably that the pensionable age for this group is five years lower.

Table 13

Number of pensioners and average level of pension

	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Total number of pensioners	543 472	544 261	546 360	540 472	539 139	529 023
Of whom: women	318 146	310 894	322 286	318 675	326 138	331 581
men	225 326	233 367	224 074	221 797	213 001	197 442
Average level of pension, in som	197.03	246.92	307.01	377.70	385.40	462.00
Including: average for women	189.09	239.01	292.70	348.12	361.56	434.71
Average for men	208.23	257.46	327.59	420.13	421.87	507.84

The transition has begun from a distributive pension system to pension insurance based on the personal savings of each citizen. The level of the pension is determined on the basis of insurance principles, depending on contributions to a pension fund made by a working person during his/her working life. The average level of pensions for women is 15 to16 per cent lower than that for men, which can be explained by the lower level of wages and lower number of years worked by women. Women make up 63 per cent of all pensioners. In the view of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, it is essential that a gender analysis of pension legislation be carried out.

The legislative instruments providing for the rendering of State support to citizens incapable of work are the law on the social protection of disabled persons of 17 April 1991 with additions and amendments of 31 October 1998 and Government Regulation No. 281 of 15 May 1998 on improvement of the system of social protection for impoverished families and citizens. In accordance with these documents, disabled persons, irrespective of sex, but depending on the type and category of disability, and families who have disabled children under the age of 16, are granted concessionary rates on payments for public utilities, medicines and solid fuel supplies, and wheelchairs are issued free of charge to persons with disorders of the locomotor system.

For a number of years, however, applications to receive wheelchairs have in practice only been granted in 20 to30 per cent of cases. The comprehensive provision of wheelchairs for disabled persons is hampered by the lack of funding from the Republic’s budgetary resources.

One of the most important documents governing State policy toward disabled persons has been the National Programme of State Support for Disabled Persons, ratified by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic in 1999. This programme focussed on establishing conditions for the system of social welfare for disabled persons to ensure the achievement of genuine equity and equality for disabled persons and to resolve issues surrounding their social rehabilitation. At the present time, there are already 25 rehabilitation centres in operation.

The shortage of financial resources and the lack of awareness on the part of the services concerned of experience which has been acquired around the globe in solving social problems are hampering the effective development of new forms of social services in the Republic. Through cooperation with international charitable foundations and organizations, national organizations are seeking to implement joint projects for reforming social protection, and social welfare bodies are currently actively collaborating with the NGO sector and with charitable organizations in implementing social policy. For example, international donors, the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation and HIVOS support the operation of a network of 10 crisis centres for women, which provide women who been subjected to violence with free medical, psychological and legal assistance and, where necessary, with temporary shelter.

Measures to improve the targeting and level of social protection, to provide sound social protection for pensioners and to ensure that State social security payments are made promptly and in full have been included in the National Poverty Reduction Strategy for the Period 2003-2005, which is currently being drawn up.

Article 14. Rural women

The rural population accounts for two thirds of the population of Kyrgyzstan. 46.5 per cent of women are engaged in agriculture, with 31.2 per cent working on a self-employed basis. Women account for around 15 per cent of the owners of peasant farm holdings.

The national programme “Ayalzat” has implemented through its organizations in the regions, the Centres for Women’s Initiatives, a project to provide employment for women and to encourage women to become entrepreneurs. In 1999-2000, for example, a small loans programme was started up in rural areas for family businesses run by women. Special groups of impoverished and unemployed mothers and of mothers with many children have been established, for whom a system of financial support involving the granting of small loans has been used to expand income-generating activities and self-employment, to create additional jobs, to promote work from home and to encourage women to become entrepreneurs. The majority of the small loans taken out by women have been for producing bread and other bakery products and for producing sewn garments (including national costumes) and items of bed-linen, etc. A large number of women’s non-governmental organizations have also been working in the regions, making a distinct contribution to promoting entrepreneurial activity and farming and to solving employment problems for rural women through the provision of information and of training on gender, economic and legal issues.

Gender training in local authorities produces results which affect the daily lives of rural women. An example of this is provided by the Nurmanbet aiyl okmotu in the Chu district, where, following training, work on gender-based development was initiated. 2,279 women are resident in the aiyl-okmotu area, of whom 10 are in managerial posts, 110 work in the education system, five in the cultural field and 10 in the aiyl-okmotu administration; two women are aiyl-okmotu deputies (of a total of 13 deputies), and a women’s council has been set up. All the impoverished families have land holdings and for this reason the majority of women are engaged in agriculture. In the aiyl okmotu, there are two credit unions which primarily issue loans to single mothers and women from impoverished families. 158 women are members of the two women’s non-governmental organizations. The local NGO “Alga” has run, jointly with the authorities, a two-day seminar entitled “Life without violence”, and through the efforts of the women’s council 40 impoverished families have been provided with aid in the form of free medicines.

The agrarian land reforms which are underway in Kyrgyzstan have on the one hand made it possible to alleviate unemployment in the country by attracting hundreds and thousands of unemployed persons to peasant farms. On the other hand, as studies by international organizations (WB, DFID, UNIFEM) have shown, the economic opportunities for women have worsened somewhat. This is linked to the fact that despite the official willingness of social and economic institutions and organizations to introduce a market for land and to carry out radical land reforms, the actual day-to-day functioning of these organizations proceeds largely along former lines. The low level of legal awareness in the population and particularly the lack of understanding of the law on the private ownership of land are giving rise to additional difficulties and costs in implementing the agrarian land reforms. The traditional mentality of villagers, characterized by paternalism and collectivist values, is coming into conflict with free-market values, which have not as yet developed fully, such as the sense of being one’s own boss and the orientation toward commercial success.

The conflict between these values, set against the backdrop of the briefness of the period of reforms, is leading to the adoption of “double standards” of thinking and behaviour, which are particularly marked where gender attitudes and gender relations are concerned.

As has been shown by a study assessing the needs of rural women for land reform which was carried out in spring 2002 by the Association for the Support of Women Entrepreneurs with the support of UNIFEM, women are unaware of the violation of their rights to land ownership and have no mechanisms for, or traditions of, opposing discrimination on grounds of sex with regard to economic rights. Indirectly, the ratio of the sexes among heads of households provides evidence of this:

Table 14

Heads of households

	Female heads of household	Male heads of household
Region	(as percentage)	(as percentage)
Batken	7.9	92.1
Jalal-Abad	18.1	81.9
Issyk-Kul	8.5	91.5
Naryn	5.1	94.9
Osh	24.5	75.5
Talas	4.1	95.9
Chu	15.7	84.3
Bishkek	16.1	83.9

The low level of gender sensitivity combined with the influence of traditionalist public opinion are factors determining the particularly vulnerable economic status of divorced, widowed, unmarried and disabled women. However, there is as yet no reliable statistical or other representative data on the implementation in Kyrgyzstan of the economic rights of women. The agricultural census which is starting this year would appear to present a unique opportunity for studying this problem. Unfortunately, the census questionnaire, which was drawn up by the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic, does not include a gender component in a range of vital economic indicators.

On the whole, a significant change is taking place in the countryside as regards labour: the distribution of land into private ownership is increasing the level of employment and the workload of women in the family, and work within the family structure is increasingly appearing to replicate the past. A return to agricultural production based on unmechanized family labour is creating the conditions for a revival of paternalistic arrangements and values. The extended family, large numbers of children and the consequent pivotal role of the woman in the family are once again gaining in importance. These are factors conducive to reinforcing the traditions and customary law of Muslims (adat). In such a situation, women risk losing all the gains made in terms of their rights and not obtaining any benefit from the land reforms. Changes in the economic and social position of women are creating an urgent need for institutionalized assistance in obtaining equal access to land resources and real estate.

In this way, the rules of customary law (adat) are being re-established among the population not because of inertia or the dominance of traditional gender stereotypes but as a result of the objective recreation of conditions and criteria for organising the jobs women do and the conditions under which they live. At the same time, the consciousness of rural women is, on the whole, typified by a lack of serious thought about the subject of land reform and women’s involvement in it, and discussions on the rights of women in land reform are correspondingly outmoded. As a result, the lack of a clear understanding by women of their own needs and requirements in the course of land reform is producing a lack of clear expectations in their awareness of land reform.

Women need backing for their family businesses through long-term loan schemes (at realistic rates). Many women who are engaged in farming or other types of economic activity in the countryside are not in a position to take out loans, the interest rates and repayment terms for which would be realistic for their small farming businesses. Nor do they possess any property which could provide security for the issue of a bank loan. Thus, they are in a kind of vicious circle: in order to get their business on its feet, they need capital. But in order to obtain a loan as a vital resource for developing the business, they need to have sufficiently substantial material assets.

It should be noted that although international organisations and banks have actively been making loans available for agriculture all these years, the rural enterprise small loans scheme functions more effectively. International organisations like FINCA-Kyrgyzstan (USAID) have enabled thousands of citizens of Kyrgyzstan, especially women, to develop their own business initiatives and to create jobs for themselves. However, the financial support that is provided by similar credit organisations for the most severely impoverished strata of the population merely allows them to develop survival strategies.

A small loans scheme is also being introduced in the Republic for unemployed citizens and its principal aim is to encourage a growing number of unemployed persons, including those in rural areas, to become entrepreneurs. Since the start of 2002 the small loans centres have already issued small loans totalling 5.5 million som, and 52 per cent of the recipients of the small loans have been women. Annex 3 presents data showing the trend (1999-2002) in the issue of small loans to women across the Republic’s regions.

International organisations also use grant schemes in order to increase the level of employment among the population. Under the UNDP project “Supporting the Potential of Women’s Organisations”, 46 projects, submitted predominantly by rural women’s organisations, have won grants totalling $US 141,390,000. This project was designed to assist in attracting women into the market economy, to encourage them to set up their own businesses, to establish jobs for women and to improve their living conditions, especially in rural areas.

Article 15. Equality before the law and civil law

Women in Kyrgyzstan have equal access to legal services. Women may obtain legal aid free of charge from specialized social services, i.e. crisis centres and shelters, as well as through a variety of centres established by non-governmental organizations for the provision of legal aid. Consideration is currently being given to the idea of establishing an institute of social advocacy, based on the model of universities’ law clinics, the aim of whose activities would be to provide free legal aid to vulnerable groups of the population, including women.

In accordance with ILO Convention No. 97 concerning Migrant Workers, countries of the CIS, as members of the International Labour Organization, grant women migrants the right to be joined by their family members.

To date, the countries which have most welcomed our citizens working in them are the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan (longstanding links, absence of a language barrier, etc.). However, in order to protect their internal labour markets from a large influx of foreign workers, these countries have introduced quotas and permits granting foreign citizens the right to work. Unfortunately, some of our citizens, including women, who are resident in Russia and Kazakhstan are working or are involved in entrepreneurial activity illegally, frequently without registering, obtaining permits or notifying official bodies (administration of internal affairs, tax agencies, etc.).

The form of migration most characteristic of modern Kyrgyzstan is that from rural areas to the cities, and this serves as one of the most important indicators of restructuring and market reforms in the economy. Such a population shift is caused by workers leaving the agrarian sector, where there is a surplus of labour, and switching to other types of activity. Although the occupations of internal migrants from villages and small towns do not always match the market requirements of large cities, in certain areas they may create competition and promote the development of entrepreneurial activity in the Republic.

Internal population migration has highlighted problems such as the difficulties of finding a job because of a lack of the required qualification in a particular specialization, of living in a new place and of registering for a place of residence. All this fosters growing pressure in the labour market, worsening unemployment and the creation of unsanitary conditions in places where people accumulate in large numbers, etc.

The main reasons for people leaving their permanent place of residence are: a desire to find work or change jobs (33.6 per cent of men), reasons of a personal or family nature (29.4 per cent of women) and return to previous place of residence after studying.

Table 15

Reasons for population migration in Kyrgyzstan

Including	Total (both sexes)	Men	Women
In connection with work	29.2	33.6	25.7
Reasons of a personal and family nature	25.3	20.2	29.4
In connection with study	18.0	19.3	16.9
Return to previous place of residence	17.7	17.7	17.7
Because of deteriorating interethnic relations	0.1	0.1	0.2
Because of the deteriorating crime situation	0.1	0.0	0.1
Due to economic circumstances	0.9	0.9	0.8
Due to environmental/climatic conditions	0.5	0.4	0.7
Other reasons	8.2	7.7	8.5

The migratory behaviour of the population depends largely on its sex/age composition. In the Republic as a whole, women are more frequently involved in movements between regions than men, with the proportion of women among incoming migrants standing at 57 per cent and the proportion among outgoing migrants 55 per cent, which is evidence of the greater mobility of women.

Table 16

Migrants in 2001, by sex

Régions	Incoming migrants		Outgoing migrants		Net migratory inflow/outflow
Total	Of whom	Total	Of whom		Total	Of whom
Men	Women	Men	Women		Men	Women
Batken	678	307	371		1 495	696	799		817	389	428
Jalal-Abad	981	421	560		2 542	1 301	1 241		1 561	880	681
Issyk-Kul	809	382	447		2 516	1 164	1 352		1 687	782	905
Naryn	1 377	612	765		2 538	1 160	1 378		1 161	548	613
Osh	1 448	658	790		1 890	795	1 095		442	137	305
Talas	592	274	318		1 277	581	696		685	307	378
Chu	7 100	3 106	3 994		4 912	2 014	2 898		2 188	1 092	1 096
Bishkek city council	8 587	3 716	4 871		4 883	2 249	2 634		3 704	1 467	2 237

In all the Republic’s regions the migratory outflow consists principally of women, with the exception of Jalal-Abad, which is losing mainly men. The Chu region and the city of Bishkek show a net population inflow, with the Chu region acquiring equal numbers of men and women. It should be pointed out that women make up nearly 61 per cent of the net migratory inflow into Bishkek city.

Article 16. Equality in marriage and family law

Official statistics in Kyrgyzstan group together victims of all types of crimes without separating out the number of victims of violent crimes in the family. However, according to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, over a three-year period, murders and the infliction of serious physical injuries in the domestic environment alone consistently accounted for more than 15 per cent of all recorded crimes. On the initiative of non-governmental organizations, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic has drawn up a series of programmes providing for a change in the way in which statistics are recorded, included in which will be the recording of cases of violence in the home. Statistical data from the crisis centres and shelters shows that of the nearly 29,300 women and girls who approached them for help in the period 1997-2001, more than 50 per cent had experienced violence in the family.

Violence in the home remains a highly concealed act. The mentality of Kyrgyz women can in the majority of cases be summed up by the maxim – don’t wash your dirty linen in public. Women who become victims of violent relationships within the family try to solve their problems without turning to the law-enforcement agencies. One of the causes of such behaviour is women’s limited experience of the law and their lack of awareness of their rights and of the mechanism for exercising them. For this reason, the total number of dysfunctional families held on police records as at 1 April 2002 in the Republic as a whole stood at just 881, even though as many as 10,000 police callouts to family incidents are recorded annually. The question of whether there is a link between crimes committed by women and systematic violence which they have suffered in the family or at work has not yet been studied.

There is no specific criminal legislation in Kyrgyzstan regulating relations in the sphere of violence in the home. It is not assigned to a special category and is included under domestic violence which as a criminological concept covers a wide range of violent acts, or acts carrying the threat of violence, committed by people in defined kinship, marital, neighbourhood and possibly friendship relationships. The lack of a clear definition of the term “violence in the home” and of specific indicators for measuring it prevents the monitoring of changes in the extent, forms and circumstances of violence in the home and on the whole renders analysis and evaluation difficult.

Criminal, civil and administrative legislation are currently applied in cases of violence in the home. While a charge may be brought by the internal affairs branch (police), the public prosecutor’s office, the court and the victim, the criminal investigation is conducted by the State. There are no special State services for providing support to women victims of violence, but crisis centres’ legal services have been used in this capacity recently.

The doctrine that the State is responsible solely for the activity of public authorities but not for the actions of private individuals is gradually dying away in Kyrgyzstan. The international principle of “complicity”, which imposes responsibility on a State which has been unable to prevent or suppress a violation of human rights, whether in the public or the private sphere, is being introduced.

In this connection, a group of non-governmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan, the “Diamond” Association, the Association of Independent Academic Lawyers and the Institute for Equal Rights and Opportunities, prepared a draft law on measures for social and legal protection from violence in the family. It regulates relations with regard to the social and legal protection of victims of family violence and also defines the preventive action to be taken by persons in order to prevent violence in the family.

Those drafting the law proceeded on the assumption that criminal law, in fulfilling its punitive function, is generally oriented first and foremost toward punishment. Application of the law in practice shows that in order to overcome violence in the family a blanket criminal-law response to facts of violence is not enough, since the interests of the family as a whole are in the balance. For example, when a case is brought to court and the person using violence convicted, a family is sometimes deprived of its breadwinner and moves from one difficult situation to another. Criminal law also fails to provide for the fact that the victims may wish to preserve family relations. Existing criminal legislation therefore does not provide the flexibility required in the choice of measures to suppress violence in the home.

The law defines the basic forms of violence in the family – physical, psychological and sexual, with sexual violence being assigned for the first time to a separate category. Among the innovations must be mentioned the broadening of the concept of family also to include persons cohabiting (in a de facto marriage), as well as relations residing permanently together with family members, and the introduction by those who drafted the law of the concept of dependent family member, i.e. a family member who is materially dependent because of old age, disability or sickness on other members of the family.

Another new element reflected in the draft law is the creation of mechanisms, based on compliance with international standards, for providing aid to family members who have been victims of violence. These are measures specifically for suppressing violence in the family – protective orders. In order to combat family violence systematically and effectively, the draft law provides for an integrated approach which is implemented by combining the efforts of the law-enforcement agencies, the courts, State and social organizations, general educational and medical institutions and social services.

Discussion of the draft law, involving the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, Labour and Social Welfare, the office of the Procurator General, the Secretariat of the National Council on Women, Family and Gender Development reporting to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, an international expert, an OSCE representative and a range of non-governmental organizations, has made it possible to highlight certain shortcomings and factors which had not been allowed for. The draft law is currently being finalized and introduced in the Republic’s Parliament.

In order to introduce the draft law, a rule on legislative (public) initiatives, contained in Article 64 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, which calls for the gathering of 30,000 citizens of the Republic, has been implemented.

Appendix No. 1

Data on the number of women sent for training and placed in jobs after training in 199-2002 in Kyrgyzstan

Name of region	1999		2000		2001		January-February 2002
Sent for training	Number of women placed in jobs after training	As % of number of women trained		Sent for training	Number of women placed in jobs after training	As % of number of women trained		Sent for training	Number of women placed in jobs after training	As % of number of women trained		Sent for training	Number of women placed in jobs after training	As % of number of women trained
Total	Women	As % of total		Total	Women	As % of total		Total	Women	As % of total		Total	Women	As % of total
Kyrgyz Republic	6 460	3 912	60.6	1 913	48.9		8 658	5 169	59,7	2 582	50.0		8 157	4 871	59.7	3 566	73.2		1 300	779	59.9	409	52.5
Bishkek, city	1 361	1 014	74.5	517	51.0		1 894	1 412	74,6	813	57.6		1 953	1 433	73.4	1 279	89.3		331	239	72.2	184	77.0
Jalal-Abad	772	462	59.8	168	36.4		993	550	55.4	256	46.5		1 033	606	58.7	441	72.8		215	100	46.5	52	52.0
Issyk-Kul	507	319	62.9	81	25.4		545	343	62.9	149	43.4		564	283	50.2	152	53.7		20	0	0.0	30
Naryn	115	60	52.2	39	65.0		201	121	60.2	16	13.2		240	138	57.5	67	48.6		10	9	90.0	4	44.4
Osh	1 806	853	47.2	321	37.6		1 946	932	47.9	334	35.8		1 693	875	51.7	407	46.5		228	116	50.9	14	12.1
Batken							612	269	44.0	86	32.0		572	246	43.0	142	57.7		74	32	43.2	14	43.8
Talas	252	129	51.2	63	48.8		294	134	45.6	857	639.6		384	175	45.6	89	50.9		50	13	26.0	8	61.5
Chu	1 647	1 075	65.3	724	67.3		2 173	1 408	64.8	71	5.0		1 718	1 115	64.9	989	88.7		372	270	72.6	103	38.1

Apendix 2

Data on the number of recipients of child allowances for impoverished families and citizens in the period 1999-2001 throughout the Republic

Name of regions	Number of families receiving child allowances		Of which with
	Twins under 18 months	Triplets under 18 months	Children under 18 months	Children from 18 months to 16 years
1999	2000	2001		1999	2000	2001	1999	2000	2001	1999	2000	2001	1999	2000	2001
Bishkek, city	2 255	2 417	2 290		62	33	50	18	0	6	459	584	508	3 946	4 284	3 903
Chu	5 364	4 978	4 579		68	32	46	6	0	0	884	867	820	13 389	12 977	11 943
Talas	8 033	9 842	9 592		58	41	39	3	0	0	1 494	2179	2 215	21 786	26 720	24 244
Naryn	18 263	17 816	16 609		51	67	74	0	0	1	4 050	5155	4 527	50 005	46 596	42 270
Issyk-Kul	7 472	9 897	8 636		25	68	98	3	3	3	1 319	1976	2 041	21 912	27 130	24 071
Osh	64 323	53 935	47 789		523	174	152	15	0	0	17 787	13775	12 118	189 038	158 536	137 178
Batken		14 732	16 284			56	72		0	3		3272	3 593	0	43 724	47 672
Jalal-Abad	42 610	42 924	43 376		304	172	160	12	0	6	8 187	9 641	9 002	127 866	129 878	128 750
Total for Republic	148 320	156 541	149 155		1 091	643	691	57	3	19	34 180	37 449	34 824	427 942	449 845	420 031

Apendix 3

Data on the issue of small loans for the period 1999 - 2002 throughout the Republic

	1999		2000		2001		January-February 2002		Total
Name of region	Number of people receiving small loans	Total amount in som (000s)		Number of people receiving small loans	Total amount in som (000s)		Number of people receiving small loans	Total amount in som (000s)		Number of people receiving small loans	Total amount in som (000s)		Number of people receiving small loans	Total amount in som (000s)
Total	Women	As % of total	Total	Women		As % of total	Total	Women	As % of total	Total	Women	Aa % of total	Total	Women	As % of total	Total	Women		As % of total	Total	Women	As % of total	Total	Women	As % of total	Total	Women	As % of total	Total	Women	As % of total
Kyrgyz Republic	1 377	700	50.8	2 838	1 468		51.7	3 423	2 013	58.8	12 435	7 221.7		58.1	4 215	2 364	56.1	22 036.1	12 545		56.9	348	191	54.9	2 417.2	1 397		57.8	9 363	5 268	56.3	39 725.8	22632	57.0
Bishkek, city								363	223	61.4	2 412.9	1 471.9		61.0	1 123	575	51.2	8 015.7	4 488.8		56.0	75	53	70.7	662.5	463.7		70.0	1 561	851	54.5	11 091.1	6 424.4	57.9
Jalal-Abad	372	175	47.0	668.5	300.0		44.9	756	403	53.3	1 847.3	930.0		50.3	428	206	48.1	1 768.5	746.00		42.2	30	6	20.0	125.0	30.0		24.0	1 586	790	49.8	4 409.3	2 006.0	45.5
Issyk-Kul	172	123	71.5	292.0	209.0		71.6	157	81	51.6	423.0	243.0		57.4	161	116	72.0	926.0	696.0		75.2	16	12	75.0	144.0	108.0		75.0	506	332	65.6	1 785.0	1 256.0	70.4
Naryn	88	37	42.0	419.0	166.5		39.7	372	192	51.6	1 726.2	865.8		50.2	389	196	50.4	1 742.2	884.7		50.8	7	2	28.6	31.5	9.0		28.6	856	427	49.9	3 918.9	1 926.0	49.1
Osh	394	174	44.2	876.0	487.0		55.6	1 053	669	63.5	3 260.8	2 078.0		63.7	1 149	713	62.1	4 496.3	2 845.0		63.3	137	73	53.3	699.5	404.0		57.8	2 733	1 629	59.6	9 332.6	5 814	62.3
Batken								48	39	81.3	120.0	97.5		81.3	396	229	57.8	1 392.5	785.0		56.4	28	12	42.9	192.5	62.5		32.5	472	280	59.3	1 705.0	945.0	55.4
Talas	351	191	54.4	582.0	305.6		52.5	600	369	61.5	1 952.3	1 200.7		61.5	344	210	61.0	2 037.5	1 243.6		61.0	35	19	54.3	335.0	181.8		54.3	1 330	789	59.3	4 906.8	2 931.7	59.7
Chu								74	37	50.0	692.5	334.8		48.3	225	119	52.9	1 657.4	856.1		51.7	20	14	70.0	227.2	138.0		60.7	319	170	53.3	2 577.1	1 328.9	51.6

Note : The main types of activity of women who have taken out small loans are : clothing production, folk handicrafts, commerce, public catering, consumer service, agriculture.