BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Police throughout Kyrgyzstan are allowing domestic violence and bride-kidnapping to go unchecked, a human rights organization said.
In its first report on human rights violations in the Asian country, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday Kyrgyzstan has progressive laws regarding violence against women but law enforcement officials don't enforce them.
"(M)ore often than not, they simply don't treat these as serious crimes," said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan," reports women have been kicked, strangled, beaten, stabbed and sexually assaulted by their husbands. When reporting these abuses to authorities, the women are encouraged to reconcile with their abusers, the report said.
The report also looked at "bride-kidnapping," or abduction for forced marriage. Women and girl victims of bride-kidnapping describe being grabbed, forced into cars, isolated and in some cases raped by their abductors, the report said.
Human Rights Watch called upon Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev to make ending violence against women a priority, implement its domestic violence law and enforce existing criminal laws against assault and abduction.
