Learning from HRDs: Protecting Victims of Injustice in Kyrgyzstan

Aida Baijumanova started  working in the human rights sector in 2004, when she became a coordinator of projects on elections in the human rights movement Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan and in 2007 she started her involvement in the protection of the rights of vulnerable groups of citizens. She has conducted advocacy for the protection of the rights of victims of interethnic conflict in the south of the country, and she also works on emergency response and protection of human rights defenders and human rights organizations in case of illegal actions of the police and security services.

In her talk, Aida Baijumanova discusses the experience of the public foundation Human Rights Movement: BirDuino Kyrgyzstan on the protection of the rights of vulnerable people and victims of injustice. Since its establishment, BirDuino Kyrgyzstan has been among the most active human rights organisations in the country.

She will chart the organisation's work starting from the protection of victims of Aksy tragedy in 2002, and encompassing more recent work from the protection of the victims of Barskoon tragedy; defending the rights of teachers for co-pay; and defense in 2011 at the United Nations Human Rights Committee for two torture victims sentenced to life imprisonment; to legally supporting victims of the ethnic conflict in southern Kyrgyzstan in 2010.

Finally Aida will address the strong pressure currently faced by human rights organizations in Kyrgyzstan, with a particular focus on the experiences of BirDuino Kyrgyzstan. She will discuss the attempts to adopt laws to narrow the political space of NGOs, in particular the law "On foreign agents."