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Child Brides, Forced Marriages Among Gender Equality Topics

Kyrgyz Ombudsman Dzhamilya Dzhamanbaeva met with USAID's Senior Global Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, Jamille Bigio in Bishkek. According to the ombudsman's office, the parties discussed important issues in the protection of freedoms and human rights. The key topics of conversation were reportedly the problem of early marriage among women in Kyrgyzstan, and the protection of children's rights. The ombudsman's office cited an example of a 15-year-old girl being married against her will to a much older man. "There is an urgent need to support victims of early marriages, because they are exposed to domestic violence... For example, a 23-year-old mother of three approached the Ombudsman Institute complaining of domestic violence. As it transpired, she had been forcibly married at age 15 to a man three times her age," Dzhamanbaeva said. The ombudsman stated that her office receives many appeals from girls complaining about domestic violence, and its review has revealed facts about forced early marriages. According to the Institute, such egregious facts are not isolated in Kyrgyzstan, and there is a need for the government to take measures to prevent them. In the past, human rights activists have repeatedly stated that the police are reluctant to consider cases of domestic violence, because the spouses very often reconcile, and the victim withdraws her statement. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has recognized that police systematically fail to prosecute domestic violence cases, "because of widespread misconceptions and gender stereotypes present at all levels of law enforcement and judicial systems." "The police often see no need to intervene in what they consider to be 'private matters,' and do not recognize domestic violence as acts requiring preventive measures or investigation," noted a Kyrgyz Supreme Court report. As a result, law enforcement officials often try to dissuade victims from filing a formal complaint. The situation is similar regarding the practice of bride kidnapping. However, under public pressure, in 2019 the Kyrgyz authorities toughened the punishment for kidnapping girls in order to marry them. According to the criminal code, this offense now carries a prison sentence of 5 to 10 years. Additionally, the fine for forcing girls under the age of 17 into marriage can be up to 200,000 som ($2,200). The ombudsman also said a new bill is being drafted to strengthen the mandate of the ombudsman's office and allow representatives to participate in closed-court sessions involving children. "Currently, the institute's employees are not allowed to attend such sessions, [as per] the criminal code. In this regard, we have no opportunity to ensure the protection in court of the rights of children who have been abused. With the adoption of the new law, we will be able to monitor closed trials," the ombudsman emphasized. USAID's representative, Bigio noted the importance of strengthening cooperation on the protection of children's rights and the development of mechanisms to protect against early marriage, saying that USAID is ready to continue to cooperate with the government of Kyrgyzstan, authorized bodies and human rights defenders and to provide all of...

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EBRD Acquires Stake in Air Astana

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on February 14th said it has invested $41.1m (€39m) into shares of Kazakhstan’s flagship carrier, Air Astana, supporting the country’s first partial privatization through an initial public offering (IPO). The EBRD’s investment represents a 5% shareholding in Air Astana. The shares will be listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange. The IPO is a significant privatization benchmark for Kazakhstan’s economy, which is predominantly controlled by the state. The IPO funds, including the EBRD’s investment, will be used to support Air Astana’s fleet expansion and renewal program, the construction of an aircraft maintenance facility and the acquisition of a flight simulator, the EBRD press service said. Air Astana plans to expand its current fleet to 80 aircraft by 2029 by acquiring new fuel-efficient planes. The EBRD said it will be working with Air Astana towards achieving its target of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The bank will also use this opportunity to play a greater role in the decarbonization of aviation and to assist in setting up the sustainable aviation fuels industry in Central Asia.

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Air Astana: LSE’s largest IPO of 2024 Set to Test Appetite of Investors

Shares of Central Asia's largest airline Air Astana are now for sale to the public in London, with the company's global depositary receipts (GDRs) trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The GDRs were priced for this month's IPO at $9.50 a piece last week when conditional dealings in began on the LSE and Kazakhstan's Astana International Exchange (AIX). Today, Air Astana's local shares trading on the Almaty's KASE bourse are up 6.1% to 1,241 tenge, whilst dollar-priced GDRs trading on Astana's AIX are down 1.1% to $10.08 at an intra-day volume of just under 30,000 GDRs. The LSE's largest IPO of 2024 to date is set to gauge the demand of frontier and emerging market equity investors for exposure to Central Asian stocks in the aftermath of Russia's 2022 attack on Ukraine. Companies like Air Astana, and notably its low-cost carrier unit Fly Arystan, have in some ways benefited from the disruptions caused by the war and its consequent matrix of international sanctions as people and goods are re-routed through Kazakhstan. Conversely, the threat of more instability in the region and the risks of higher inflation, fuel and operating costs will undoubtedly remain on the minds of potential investors. The IPO in London and Kazakhstan represents a meaningful step for the latter's sovereign wealth fund, Samruk Kazyna, which plans to continue putting the shares of state companies on public markets. According to one former IPO manager from a European bank who declined to be named as the IPO process was underway, Air Astana's offering is the "clearest test in the IPO market to date of investor belief in Kazakhstan’s continued economic development." He also noted that it's "positive to see that four of the nine directors are independent, with three of those independent directors being from outside Kazakhstan" in terms of corporate governance. Air Astana's results for the first nine months of 2023, which were published on December 12th, showed positive top-line growth in revenue, operating profit, and passenger-kilometers flown metrics versus 2022, though the carrier did see a 1% dip in EBITDAR margin (operating profit as a percentage of its revenue) to 28% which investors may focus on going forward.

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Kazakhstan’s Proposed Nuclear Power Plant: a Geopolitical Tightrope amid Environmental Concerns

Renowned for its abundant uranium reserves and expansive mining ventures, Kazakhstan is making substantial progress in the realm of nuclear power. Currently, approximately 60 nuclear reactors are under construction worldwide in 17 countries, and with more in the pipeline, demand for uranium has skyrocketed. Kazakhstan is by far the world's largest producer of nuclear fuel, mining 21,227 tons in 2022, which equates to 43% of global production. Kazatomprom, the national atomic company, is the world's largest uranium producer, with its subsidiaries, affiliates, and joint ventures developing 26 deposits. Russia, Japan, China, Canada, and France are all heavily invested, whilst international agreements exist with a plethora of other nations. Kazakhstan’s inaugural venture into the nuclear field was marked by the BN-350 fast-neutron reactor in Aktau, which ran from 1973 to 1999 before being decommissioned. Now, President Tokayev has announced a referendum will be held to decide whether to build the nation’s first fully-fledged nuclear power plant. "On the one hand, Kazakhstan, as the world's biggest uranium producer, should have its own nuclear power capacity," Tokayev stated. "On the other hand, many citizens and some experts have concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants.” The Proving Ground With Kazakhstan having endured the most contamination of all the former Soviet Republics, anything nuclear is a contentious issue. Between 1949 and 1989, the authorities executed more than 750 nuclear tests in Kazakhstan, the bulk of these, including the USSR’s first successful atomic explosion - codenamed Joe-1 - taking place in the Semipalatinsk Polygon (proving ground) in the north-east of the country. By far the hardest hit area, Semipalatinsk saw 456 tests, which affected two million people across 300 square kilometers. Eager to know what to expect in the event of a nuclear war, in 1957 the Soviets secretly opened Dispensary Number Four in Semipalatinsk. Shipping in spectators - teachers were instructed to have their pupils watch explosions - the facility observed and analyzed the effects of radiation on the populous and reported their findings back to Moscow. In this post-apocalyptic land, elevated levels of cancer, tuberculosis and mental illness persist. Today, people swim in crater lakes left by blasts which dot the steppe, though animals won’t go near the water. With all agriculture banned, a vast swathe of land still remains off-limits. Pregnancies are still screened for possible termination, with 6% of babies born “polygon.” Even in inhabited areas, Geiger counters read over 250; the normal level is just fifteen. In their headlong rush to abandon the empire upon the collapse of the USSR, the Russians left more than an undetonated payload in the mines of Semipalatinsk. As soldiers rioted over conditions and unpaid wages, upon its independence Kazakhstan inherited the fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world. With Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi sniffing around, it was widely rumored that the Iranians, who the CIA publicly alleged to be “actively shopping,” had offered $300 million for weapons-grade uranium. Arriving in Kazakhstan post-haste, through a combination of threats, the promise of a seat at the international table...

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Bridging East and West: Kazakhstan’s Changing Foreign Policy in the 2020s

In the wake of significant geopolitical and social change, Kazakhstan has been noticeably reassessing its official and economic relations with foreign powers. Formerly a part of the USSR, Kazakhstan has positioned itself since the collapse of the bloc in 1991 as a country with a triangulated approach to foreign relations. This means that it attempts to maintain cordial relationships with both of its powerful neighbors, Russia and China, whilst also improving relations with countries in the West. Now, this multi-vector foreign policy appears to be shifting as Kazakhstan re-evaluates its priorities in a world that has seen both a global pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia Kazakhstan is allied with Russia in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), but this relationship was put under strain even prior to Russia’s war in Ukraine. In a memorable speech from September 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his view that “Kazakhs never had any statehood,” and that their desire to align themselves more closely with Russia was “profound.” These statements caused Nursultan Nazarbayev, then President of Kazakhstan, to threaten to remove his country from the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a bloc largely dominated by Russia. This threat was not acted upon, however, and Kazakhstan remains a member to this day. Nonetheless, it was an indication of cooling relations long before the current global state of affairs, and a precursor to a shift in how Astana sees Kazakhstan being positioned on the world stage in future. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, Kazakhstan’s foreign relations have taken an ever more decisive turn. While Astana does not officially support international sanctions against Russia, citing the knock-on effects these sanctions create for Kazakhstani businesses - Russia remains a strong trade partner and a key part of Kazakhstan’s supply chain for land-based trade due to their long, shared border - it has nevertheless complied with them. This purely economic reasoning for not officially supporting international sanctions places Kazakhstan at odds with Belarus, which is an example of a former Soviet state that remains allied to Russia and whose leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, derided by many as a dictator, has been vocal in his support of Russia’s political actions, allowing Belarusian territory to be used to further Russia’s strategic goals in the war against Ukraine. In sharp contrast, Astana has made it clear that it will not allow Russia to use Kazakh territory in an attempt to circumvent international sanctions. In an effort to avoid incurring secondary international sanctions due to its ties with Russia, Kazakhstan has invested in an electronic monitoring system, launched in spring 2023, for goods purchased from Western countries passing through its territory for re-export to the EAEU. This system tracks goods until they reach their final destination, thus aiming to prevent foreign players who wish to help Russia evade international sanctions through this method, known as “parallel imports”. In October 2023, Kazakhstan also halted the export of over 100 products to Russia (including drones, military equipment,...

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Kazakhstan Continues Countdown Ahead of Move to Single Unified Timezone

In less than two weeks, the stroke of midnight will unify all of Kazakhstan in a single timezone. On the night of February 29th-March 1st, residents of twelve regions - as well as the cities of Astana, Almaty and Shymkent - will have to move their clocks back an hour unifying the country in a single timezone (UTC+5). But not all citizens are happy about it, with some arguing it will impact their health. Residents of the East Kazakhstan region are especially fierce in defending their perceived rights. Earlier this year, a lawyer from Ust-Kamenogorsk filed a grievance against then-Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov demanding compensation for damages due to the time change. For that reason, scientists were dispatched to the region to explain the benefits of the timezone change to local residents. Among the advantages they noted were the elimination of time barriers between residents of different regions of Kazakhstan, more favorable conditions for doing business, streamlining the work of government agencies and emergency services, and improved coordination of transport and communication. Professor Sultan Tuleukhanov, head of the Department of Biophysics and Biomedicine of the Kazakh State University, agrees with the residents of East Kazakhstan. "There is such a concept as desynchronises, a type of inconsistency. In particular, it's a change to the chrono-structural parameters of biological rhythms of the human organism," he noted. Desynchronosis causes irritability and fatigue while also reducing the efficiency of the body. However, according to other specialists, residents of most regions will experience this only in the short term. There is one more concern, however. In some cities, it will get dark earlier after the time change, meaning people will have to work under artificial lights and turn on electricity earlier, meaning expenditure on electricity will increase. Yeraly Shinasilov, the director of the national dispatching center of the system operator, KEGOK (Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company), said that the change of time zones will only affect the finances of residents slightly. "Our consumption grows about 2% every year. Due to the fact that our peak demand will move to an hour earlier, it will all dissolve into the natural growth of consumption during the year," he stated. Only time will tell how effective the single time zone will be for Kazakhstan.