(Bishkek, March 6, 2026) – Women with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan face alarming rates of harassment, physical and sexual abuse, and economic discrimination, despite legal reforms, Human Rights Watch said today, ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2026.
The Kyrgyz government has taken positive steps in the last year to address violence against women with disabilities and to uphold their rights. But the government needs to provide effective protection from harassment and abuse.
“Women and girls with disabilities are still not heard and believed, and are unable to access Kyrgyzstan’s justice system, even as progress is made on paper,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Kyrgyz authorities should make their promises a reality and address existing gaps.”
Based on March 2025 research by Equality, a grassroots organization of women with disabilities, although violence was widespread, very few women reported it or received meaningful support from the government. The group surveyed 150 women with disabilities across seven regions of Kyrgyzstan, with nearly 93 percent reporting having experienced abuse and, in some cases, multiple forms.
Of those surveyed, 140 reported psychological abuse, 80 reported harassment, 70 economic problems, 60 physical violence, and 40 sexual violence. Only eight had ever sought help from the police or medical services, citing deep distrust of law enforcement, lack of information about their rights, fear of shame and social judgment, and concern for their own safety in cases where the abuser was a family member.
This data echoes findings that Human Rights Watch documented in its December 2023 report, “Abused by Relatives, Ignored by the State”, based on interviews with 56 survivors across three provinces of Kyrgyzstan. As Human Rights Watch reported at the time, families frequently concealed the existence of relatives with disabilities from society, while law enforcement routinely minimized reported cases, and shelters and legal services were largely inaccessible to survivors with disabilities.
In February 2025, President Sadyr Japarov signed into law legal amendments to the criminal code introducing harsher penalties for sexual violence offenses against people with disabilities, and recognizing disability as an aggravating factor. It also eliminated exemptions from imprisonment for convicted offenders who had committed sexual violence against persons with disabilities. While these changes respond to the heightened risk of sexual violence faced by many women and girls with disabilities, framing disability itself as a basis for harsher penalties and grouping people with disabilities with children can risk reinforcing paternalistic attitudes and stereotypes of inherent vulnerability rather than ensuring equal protection, Human Rights Watch said.
In August, President Japarov signed a law on “Rights and Guarantees of People with Disabilities” which aligns the country’s legislation on disability rights issues with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. This requires Kyrgyzstan to move away from what is referred to as the “medical model” of disability, which largely focuses on a person’s medical condition, and toward the social model, which recognizes the human rights of people with disabilities, including social protection and full legal capacity on an equal basis with others.
Among the new approaches is the acceptance that the government has a responsibility to support citizens with disabilities to acquire, develop, and maintain skills for independent living. It also would require the government to provide support to enable people with disabilities to, for example, perform a job, access services, or participate in public events.
Throughout 2025, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Labor, Social Welfare, and Migration organized educational seminars for law enforcement and judicial personnel across the country on supporting women with disabilities to access justice. In 2024, a practical guide was developed by lawyers and human rights defenders for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and social workers on protecting women with disabilities from violence. Local nongovernmental organizations, funded by the country’s international partners, are providing more social justice and empowerment projects focusing on women with disabilities.
However, serious gaps remain in access to justice. While the authorities collect data on domestic violence, it is still not disaggregated by specific populations, including women and girls with disabilities. Official statistics on victims and survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, and forced and child marriage do not include any information about disability, nor are there any official or nongovernmental studies that accurately measure the prevalence of the various types of domestic violence against women and girls with disabilities.
Based on the Equality research, Kyrgyzstan’s justice system is still structurally unprepared and often unwilling to handle cases involving women and girls with disabilities. Courthouses and police stations remain physically inaccessible: only 25 percent of all buildings in Bishkek, the country’s capital, are equipped with ramps. There are still no adapted information materials, and sign language interpretation is almost entirely absent in legal proceedings. Survivors of violence still face an entrenched culture of disbelief and dismissal.
In one case documented by Equality from the town of Karakol, a judge has refused to admit the recorded testimony of a young woman with disabilities whom two men kidnapped and raped over the course of three days. The court cited her legal incapacity status as reason for refusal, a direct result of Kyrgyzstan’s outdated guardianship system, which strips people of legal standing and heightens their risk of abuse. Another case, involving a girl from the village of Tyup, ultimately resulted in a conviction and was referred to the Supreme Court, showing that justice is achievable, but only through exceptional effort and often years of persistence, Human Rights Watch said.
International partners, UN agencies, and development organizations operating in Kyrgyzstan should continue prioritizing funding for organizations led by or serving people with disabilities and should support independent civil society monitoring of the implementation of the 2025 legal reforms.
“The laws Kyrgyzstan passed in 2025 are a testament to what is possible when governments listen to advocates,” Sultanalieva said.” Now the government needs to show that these are not just symbolic gestures. Women and girls with disabilities should be safe: in their homes, in their communities, and before the law."
