On September 16, 2023, 120 media and non-governmental organizations of Kyrgyzstan have called upon the Members of Parliament to call off the so-called bill on “Agents”, which, according to them, “is almost identical with the bill on foreign agents introduced in Russian Federation in 2012” and may lead to mass repressions of the civil society. The identical bill introduced in Russia in 2012 was ruled by European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as contradicting international principles of law, and “unnecessary in a democratic state.”. The bill, furthermore, contradicts international norms of law, including Articles 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights, Article 22 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights. The legislative amendment in Kyrgyzstan was heavily criticized in OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission reports, which reiterated that adoption of such legal amendments will cause shutdown of independent media, civil society, and will introduce total control of the government over the civil society at large.

In the past few months, the repressions against the Kyrgyz civil society – media and the NGOs has substantially increased, including criminal persecution, extraditions, multi-million court cases, smear campaigns and cyber bullying by fake social media accounts, as well as organized protests against the free civil society, where threats of violence were voiced openly, without appropriate intervention by the police. In the past year alone, the rating of Reporters without Borders, Kyrgyzstan has dropped by 50 points in a single year, taking 122th spot among 180 countries.(4)

OSCE/ODIHR, Venice Commission have already directly expressed their concern over the initiated legal amendments, along with 8 international organizations – International Partnership for Human Rights, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Front Line Defenders, Freedom Now, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), World Organization Against Torture, all of which recognized the amendments as dangerous for the civil society of Kyrgyzstan.

We, the civil society organizations – media, NGOs and activists, call upon our international partners – international and national organizations, media, organizations, and activists, to join in supporting Kyrgyz media and civil society through among others, spreading the information and mobilizing international community against deterioration of the human rights violations and against repressive laws in Kyrgyzstan, as prevention of such developments in other countries. 

September 18, 2023