Retreating Rights: Examining the pressures on human rights in Kyrgyzstan Executive Summary Kyrgyzstan has just experienced another period of rapid and chaotic change, the third time the country has overthrown an incumbent President in the last 15 years. This publication shows how the roots of the problem run deep. It explores how a culture of corruption and impunity have been at the heart of Kyrgyzstan’s institutional failings, problems that have sometimes been overlooked or downplayed because of the comparison to challenges elsewhere in Central Asia, but that were ruthlessly exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The publication tries to explain the recent emergence of the new President Sadyr Japarov in the unrest of October 2020 and what it might mean for the future of Kyrgyzstan. An instinctive anti-elite populist with a powerful personal narrative and a past reputation for economic nationalism Japarov is undertaking a rapid consolidation of power, including through controversial constitutional reform. Liberal minded civil society has been under increasing pressure throughout the last decade. They have faced successive governments increasingly seeking to regulate and pressure them and a rising tide of nationalism that has seen hatred against civil society activists expressed on the streets and online, particularly due to the weaponisation of work on women’s and LGBTQ rights. The publication proposes a root and branch rethink of donor initiatives in Kyrgyzstan to take stock of the situation and come again with new ways to help, including the need for greater flexibility to respond to local issues, opportunities for new ideas and organisations to be supported, and a renewed focus on governance, transparency and accountability. Magnitsky sanctions and global anti-corruption measures can be used to respond to the ways corrupt elites have stashed their earnings abroad and they can also be used to seek redress where justice is unlikely to be served in Kyrgyzstan, such as in the tragic case of Azimjan Askarov. There is scope to better condition potential trade, aid and investment incentives to human rights benchmarks. The publication suggests areas for further amendment in the drafting of Kyrgyzstan’s new constitution and calls for more action from social media companies to protect activists and journalists who are subject to harassment. The international community should be under no illusions about the scale of the challenges Kyrgyzstan faces. It should take swift action to prevent further backsliding on rights and freedoms, while finding new ways to help resolve Kyrgyzstan’s systemic problems. Recommendations for the Government of Kyrgyzstan, international institutions and Western donors: Ensure a rigorous focus on issues of corruption, hatred and impunity; Undertake a systemic review of international donor funded projects in Kyrgyzstan including budget support, the use of consultancies and working with NGOs. It should look at both objectives and implementation, based on evidence and widespread engagement; Find ways to empower fresh thinking and new voices, while giving partners the space and resources to adapt to local priorities; Encourage the Japarov Government to develop a new National Human Rights Action Plan; Increase human rights and governance conditionality in order to unlock stalled EU and UK partnership agreements, debt relief, further government related aid and new investment; Deploy Magnitsky Sanctions and anti-corruption mechanisms more widely on Kyrgyzstan; Expand Kyrgyz language moderation on social media and strengthen redress mechanisms; Push for further amendments to the draft constitution to protect NGOs, trade unions, free speech and minority rights, and avoid increasing the power of the Prosecutor General; and Explore new mechanisms for civic consultation, learning from local practices in Kyrgyzstan, consultative bodies in other developing countries and the use of Citizens Assemblies. 2 Retreating Rights: Examining the pressures on human rights in Kyrgyzstan Contents 1. Introduction: Examining the pressure on human rights in Kyrgyzstan .......................................... 4 By Adam Hug What our authors say .................................................................................................................... 36 2. Violent change of government in Kyrgyzstan amidst COVID-19 pandemic ................................. 39 By Dr. Asel Doolotkeldieva 3. Kyrgyzstan elects a potential strongman: Implications for international partners and the future of Kyrgyz democracy ...................................................................................................................... 46 By Dr. Aijan Sharshenova 4. Social media mobilisation and the rise of populism in Kyrgyzstan .............................................. 52 By Gulzat Baialieva and Joldon Kutmanaliev 5. The populist and nationalist threat to human rights in Kyrgyzstan ............................................ 61 By Professor Eric McGlinchey 6. Political crisis: Interethnic relations must be protected .............................................................. 67 By Sardorbek Abdukhalilov 7. A new big boss? Interethnic patronage networks in Kyrgyzstan ................................................. 72 By Dr. Aksana Ismailbekova 8. Corruption in Kyrgyzstan healthcare blamed for disastrous response to COVID-19 .................. 79 By Ryskeldi Satke 9. Corruption – the only constant of Kyrgyzstan’s faux democracy ................................................ 86 By Shirin Aitmatova 10. Down from human rights activity to activism in Kyrgyzstan ....................................................... 90 By Ernest Zhanaev 11. Media landscape in Kyrgyzstan: Caught between elite capture and control of political and business interests .......................................................................................................................... 97 By Dr. Elira Turdubaeva 12. Out from under the bridge: Trolling and harassment of independent media in Kyrgyzstan .... 105 By Begaim Usenova and ARTICLE 19 13. Kyrgyzstan: Why human rights have been declining over the last 20 years and what happened to the ‘Switzerland’ of Central Asia? ........................................................................................... 111 By Jasmine Cameron 14. Conclusions and recommendations: Resolving the situation .................................................... 120 By Adam Hug 15. Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 131 3 Retreating Rights: Examining the pressures on human rights in Kyrgyzstan 1. Introduction: Examining the pressure on human rights in Kyrgyzstan …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... By Adam Hug1 This publication, Retreating Rights, is an attempt to take stock of another period of rapid and chaotic change in Kyrgyzstan, looking at how the country arrived at its current situation and assessing what can be done next.2 The roots of where the country now finds itself run deep, deeper than many of the institutions Kyrgyzstan has built up over the years, and a more detailed analysis of these structural questions is covered in the second half of this introduction and in many of the essay contributions. When this project was initially conceived in Autumn 2019 the storm clouds of nationalism and corruption over the country had been gathering for some time (and in many respects had always been there), before a weak response to COVID and pent-up frustration with a self-interested ruling class triggered the third overthrow of a government in little over 15 years. Kyrgyzstan’s relative openness, at least when compared to its Central Asian neighbours, has often masked some of the deep and deepening challenges on governance and human rights issues. The roiling intra-elite competition and concerns over corruption have driven two previous revolutions, a contentious election in 2017 and the violent siege and arrest of former President Almazbek Atambayev in August 2019. The country is also dealing with the legacy of inter-communal violence targeted mainly at the ethnic Uzbek minority in Southern Kyrgyzstan, with discrimination against that community and the suppression of their language and property rights not satisfactorily resolved. The tragic death of 1 Adam Hug became Director of the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) in November 2017. He had previously been the Policy Director at the FPC from 2008–2017. His research focuses on human rights and governance issues, particularly in the former Soviet Union. He also writes on UK and EU foreign policy. Image by Sludge G under (CC). 2 This publication is the first in a series that will comprise Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan 4 Retreating Rights: Examining the pressures on human rights in Kyrgyzstan political prisoner Azimjan Askarov in 2020 is a legacy of this grim situation and a symbol of the continuing communal tensions. Over the last decade, and particularly in recent years, civil society activists have tried to raise the alarm about the increasing challenges they faced from the bureaucratic pressure, security service snooping and nationalist backlash, but too often these concerns have been minimised, informed in part by a desire to retain the idea of Kyrgyzstan as the Central Asian success story when it came to human rights and civic freedoms, even as poverty and other development metrics showed much more limited progress. As recently as June