Photo: UN Women/Janarbek Amankulov

Violence prevents women from fully participating in society, and has long-lasting consequences and costs for women’s families, communities and countries. High levels of gender-based domestic violence against women and traditional patriarchal norms and stereotypes combine to pose a great obstacle to gender equality in Kazakhstan.

UN Women, in partnership with the Government, is implementing several projects to eliminate discrimination and violence against women and girls in Kazakhstan. These initiatives include collection and analysis of hard data on gender-based violence in Kazakhstan. Credible, evidence-based data on violence against women and girls is critical to designing effective, targeted gender-sensitive policies that assist the Government of Kazakhstan implement the global norms and standards enshrined in its international agreements.

UN Women in Action in Kazakhstan

• Identified legislative barriers and developed ways to identify and prevent domestic violence;
• Partnered with UNFPA and WHO to support the Sample survey on the prevalence of violence against women in Kazakhstan. The survey, the first in Central Asia, found a high rate of domestic violence in Kazakhstan, with 17 per cent of ever-partnered women aged 18-75 saying they’d experienced physical or sexual partner violence and 21 per cent psychological abuse.
• Continuously challenged gender stereotypes and advocated zero-tolerance for violence against women and girls;
• Focused substantive efforts to further improve Government collection and analysis of gender statistics, including monitoring domestic violence data.
• Supported Kazakhstan’s first assessment of the economic impact of domestic violence and analysed the effectiveness of budget planning for domestic violence prevention measures. The study found that partner violence cost USD 4,682,587 in out of pocket health care expenditures, and domestic violence USD 5,650,501 in lost earnings;
• Provided expert support to help Kazakhstan prepare its national CEDAW report.
• Supports high-level dialogue between state bodies and the international community to support Kazakhstan’s international commitments to eliminate violence against women and girls. These activities include November 2017 event jointly organized by UN Women Kazakhstan, the National Commission on Women, Family and Demographic Policy and the Prosecutor-General’s Office that drew 120 participants.

In 2017, UN Women Kazakhstan with UNICEF and UNFPA provided expert and technical support to implement the Prosecutor-General’s Office roadmap Kazakhstan without Domestic Violence.

After studying domestic violence prevention and response practices in Southern Kazakhstan, a joint pilot project called for urgent action to build an effective domestic violence response that would include:

• An effective prevention system;
• Inter-agency coordination;
• A referral mechanism;
• Affordable and quality services for domestic violence survivors ;
• Improved crisis centres;
• Restraining perpetrators of gender-based violence.