No one really knows the scope of sexualised abuse of children in Central Asia. According to estimates of human rights activists, only one case of 10 goes reported to law enforcement bodies at best. Once it is reported, the investigation and courts often cause another trauma to children, while proceedings may take years.

Many people lived like that back in the Soviet period: father abandoned the family, young mother was always busy at work, and the child was being brought up by a grandmother. It was normal for a girl named Ada of Kazakhstan until her grandma died when the girl was nine, and mother had to raise her. But the girl had cold relationship with her mother.

MOM'S WEDDING DAY

When Ada turned 11, her mom got married. The wedding was celebrated in the two-room apartment and the girl was not invited to it – so she was walking the dog all day long not to disturb the guests.

Older boys in the yard wangled Ada into celebrating the event by stealing a bottle of vodka from home. That day the girl tried alcohol for the first time and returned home drunk.

Ada was placed behind the wardrobe and hidden by the curtain not to embarrass her mom. It made Ada feel uncomfortable. When some of the guests left, the feeling became even stronger – some people were having sex at home, and the girl had to shut her ears.
"It seemed to be something bad, and I did not want to hear it all," Ada recalls.

After all guests left, mom and stepfather approached Ada. The new unknown man, whom she saw for the second time in her life, undressed her to her underwear, took her to the bathroom and started to pour cold water on her.

"LET'S PLAY SEX"

Further, the situation in the family worsened. It all started with the "struggle". Stepfather offered the girl to play and she agreed, as she was an active teenager. But their goals were different. For Ada, it was a chance to have fun, but for her stepfather, it was a chance to touch her intimate parts.

"I've noticed how insatiably he has wanted to do it [touch intimate parts]. I have felt everything and it has pushed me off, but I could not express my inner outrage because I was only 11 and I did not understand what exactly I did not like. I thought we were just playing."

One day Ada came from school, and only her stepfather was there. He was lying on the sofa watching TV. The girl had nothing to do and she decided to watch the film together with him. Ada was scared to sit on the sofa; she felt instinctively that she had better not approach the man, who was a stranger to her, when her mom was not at home. The girl sat on the floor, and when she turned round after a while, she noticed that her stepfather took off his underpants and deliberately showed her everything that was underneath them. He did not say a word and did not even look at the girl. She got up quickly and left.

Stepfather molested Ada not only during the day, but also at night, when she had nowhere to go. The girl would woke up because he touched her intimate parts and put his hand on her panties.

"I threw his hand back, lied down, tucked the blanket under myself, and continued to sleep. It felt as though I learned to live with it and keep it in silence."

Ada did not tell her mother anything for a long time. She dealt with regular acts of harassment by herself until she had enough. The girl decided to have a straight talk. Her fear that her mom would not believe it and would not take her side was unreasonable.

Mom and stepfather had a very unpleasant talk that turned into a scandal. Ada was as quiet as a mouse because she feared that he would beat her for the "exposure" but he left without telling a word to the girl. And when he came back everything was the same. Her mother never raised this topic, and stepfather continued to molest the stepdaughter.

He offered her openly to make sex when her mom was not at home.

"I have always bluffed my way out and changed the subject or pretended that I do not hear. I have been sure that he wouldn't rape me because he has tried to urge me and molested me for 4 years, all in vain. I have just learned to cope with it and live on. There has been a great psychological struggle inside me. I have had a hard time. I could never feel safe, relaxed and protected at home," the girl recalls.

DAD, HELP!

Once, Ada decided to ask her biological father for help. The man had his own family and he rarely visited his daughter. But Ada thought only he could help her.

"I told him that stepfather wanted to rape me, molested, harassed me, and asked him to take me away and help. And he said, "Ada, you have your family, I have mine. You shouldn't wash your dirty laundry at public." That's it".

Her hope for anyone's help was gone. For ever. The lonely girl could not find support in anyone.

I THOUGHT HE WOULD KILL MY MOM AND ME

Ada's stepfather was not an alcoholic, but he sometimes drank and beat everyone in his path. So, she went to school with her lip broken a couple of times. One day, he flogged his stepdaughter for coming late after the training and for allegedly smoking. But that was not true. It took a very long time for the scars on her back to heal. The girl's friends were shocked when they saw them during the swim season, which was a few months later. Ada recalls that she was surprised at their reaction as she got used to living like that so that such awful scars seemed natural to her.

Stepfather used to beat her mom many times, even when she was pregnant. Ada could not just watch it.

"I thought he would kill her if I don't stop him. I took a glass vase and hit him as hard as I could. I did it with all my strength, as I knew he would kill me if I miss. I hit him hard on the head. He bled but he did not fell down, but turned to me. I saw stars, I remember only how I hit the cabinet. I don't remember the rest," Ada said.

A WAY OUT

Speaking about sexualised and domestic violence in the society seemed inappropriate. Maybe all lived like that. Ada was afraid of rumours and gossip. And she hated quietly the man who ruined her life, whom her mom brought home.

Soon, Ada had a little sister. Their family moved to a poorly equipped house, where it was impossible to live. Stepfather promised to finish the house before cold season, and the family had to settle in an outdoor kitchen. Ada still continued to be exposed to sexualised abuse.
Soon, the girl's sufferings ended. The man found a new woman and abandoned the family, leaving wife, child and stepdaughter in the outdoor kitchen in the cold season.

"I think mom wanted him to come back because it was love. And I was happy that he met someone and left. This was the end of my sufferings."

LOSING ONESELF

The family moved temporarily to relatives. For Ada, it was a period of freedom and she criticised her mom as she was a young woman. Their relationships, which they didn't seem to have, deteriorated even more. The girl found new friends in the new neighbourhood, not the most favourable one, who had a negative impact on her life.

WE'RE GOING TO RAPE YOU, SO CALM DOWN!

When Ada was 16, she came to a party in the neighbourhood. Some boys drank in the apartment, others at the stairs. After the party, two "elders" offered to see her off. When they almost approached home, the boys gripped Ada, shut her mouth and forced her into the apartment in the neighbouring house.

"We drank, but I was not drunk. These elders took me to the kitchen and said, "We're going to rape you now, you should calm down and then you'll come home safe and sound, unbeaten. You'd better not fight back." But it was not in my nature, I didn't want to be quiet."

Then, one boy hit the girl, brought her to the bed and started to rape her. The second one was standing nearby and watching, waiting for his turn.

Ada asked them to stop, cried out that she would call her dad and he would punish them. And then she realised she had no one to call and she did not have a father who would protect her.

When it all was over, the rapist started to hit the wall with his feast. "Why didn't you tell me?" he yelled. Later on, Ada understood what he meant, he meant that she should have told him that she was a virgin.

The second one's turn never came up. The guys took the girl out of the apartment and brought her home to her mom. Ada recalls how sarcastic, unpleasant and humiliating it was.

"They came to our door and he [rapist] said to my mom, "Here's your daughter, safe and sound." Mom said smiling, "Oh, thank you a lot, what are your names?" she said.

Ada walked into the bathroom and sat there until her mom fell asleep.

The girl did not say about it for many years. Mother learned this tragic story only 3-4 years later. Ada does not remember the details, but she saw the rapist who lived in the nearby street a few times, and the girl would always run away.

"It was disgusting to look at him, I didn't want to see him ever. Neither then, nor now," Ada said.

When mom learned about it, she did nothing.

LIFELONG CONSEQUENCES

Sexualised abuse never passes without a trace, this is the trauma, whose consequences have impact on the whole life.

Ada early married a man whom she knew for three months only. He was a drug abuser, but she learned about it too late, and when she saw he was high at the wedding, she did not have the heart to send all guests back home and not to make the mistake.

Their family had three children. Ada has changed a lot with them. And, unlike her mother, she devoted herself to her children.

Their marriage broke up 11 years later. Ada filed for divorce and stayed with three biological and two adopted children, in the mortgaged house. She could not sell the property or take back the money. She had to work a lot, fire the furnace… and hope for oneself.

Later on, Ada met a man, who became her second husband. Their relations could not be called healthy ones, but she could not recognise manipulation then.

"My soul was broken since childhood, and I did not know how to set boundaries, how to discern healthy relationships from manipulative ones, I was just following my feelings. I did what I felt."

Because of the violence suffered in childhood, Ada tried to have control of everything. She suspected her husband for no reason as she had fear that he could use violence against her children. She has always had her experience in front of her eyes and it has never let her relax.

And her childhood habit to tuck the blanket under herself stayed with Ada for a long time. She woke up in fear when her husband hugged her at night and asked him not to do that.

Their marriage lasted for three years formally, but in fact their family broke up 1.5 years later. The new husband had numerous affairs and left his wife for long periods. Ada filed for divorce.

REHABILITATION

Despair, frustration and tiredness have made Ada make drastic changes. Starting to look for answers, she has found faith in God, new friends, and started sessions with the psychologist.

"I think that a person cannot cope with their traumas by oneself, without other people's help. I could not. You just cannot understand how much you have been hurt. There's nothing you can compare it to, you don't know how to do it right. Sessions with psychologist have helped me a lot. It was not a quick process, we have spent five years together. I was looking for a person, whose principles of work would comply with my religion. It has helped me to "recover", she said.

Ada has forgiven her mom, but their relations are still touched by their past.

"I do not let her get as close to me as I want. I feel safer doing this."

The woman is happily married now and her husband and her raise 10 children, including 7 adopted. Ada helps other families who raise adopted children and leads an active social life. She learns to be a wise wife by trusting, letting go and not controlling. She has coped with the trauma and now she moves on.

Sexualised abuse of children means when an adult or an older teenager uses the child for sexual stimulation. It is not necessarily sex, but also, for example, touching intimate parts of the body.

The forms of sexualised abuse of a child are:

Official figures of child abuse in Central Asia countries are low – one hundred, or nearly one thousand cases a year, at best, which reach law enforcement bodies and courts. But, according to human rights activists, this kind of crime is still a latent one as only 1 of 10 victims goes to the police.

However, according to UNICEF, child sexualised abuse is gendered around the world. Around 90 per cent of perpetrators are male. And girls typically report rates of sexual abuse and exploitation 2–3 times higher than boys.

According to Dina Smailova, head of NeMolchi.kz Public Foundation, little children are not always aware of what happens to them. They do not understand what sexualised abuse is and therefore cannot estimate it.

Sexualised abuse is a severe emotional trauma, which often remains for life. According to practicing psychologist Lyaila Yesnazarova, consequences may vary depending on various factors, including physical injuries or suicide because of the unbearable emotional pain.

"The reason is that the sense of safety is shattered and safety is the basic need of a human. The foundation of mutual relations gets broken as well. Moreover, the trauma causes changes in the brain structures, i.e. the trauma affects not only the mind, but also physiology," Yesnazarova said.

According to her, even many years later, the victims can have phobias, anxiety, significant decrease of self-esteem, panic attacks, PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder is the long-term mental disorder. It is peculiar to those who have experienced a severe trauma or who have witnessed terrible incidents), sexual disorders and many others.

"Immediate qualified assistance considerably reduced the risk of development of severe consequences. Nevertheless, survivors of sexual abuse may need psychological aid even several years later, no matter if they have received help right after the traumatic incident. And even many years later, they can be helped. There are methods of work, researches, which speak of their effectiveness," the psychologist said.

Adinai of Kyrgyzstan has turned 13 recently. Two years ago she was first raped by her cousin – a young man who is much older than her.

"It happened on the New Year's eve. My father's relatives gathered at our place. After the fireworks, all relatives remained outdoors and I came back to my room and fell asleep. I woke up because someone was touching my buttocks, waist, reached into my panties, touching my genitalia. I opened my eyes immediately and saw my cousin. I couldn't scream," the girl said.

The abuser shut her mouth with his hand and was on top of her so that the 11-year-old girl could not even move. Adinai did not know what to do in that situation. She was frightened and feeling sick, tears of pain and feebleness were rolling down her cheeks. The man raped Adinai. Then he stood up and went to sleep as if nothing had happened.

"I ran to the bathroom. I think I got hysterical. I was crying so hard that I could not stop. I was taking a shower for about an hour, as I wanted to scrub off all traces of his touches. I could not get clean and I was sick from myself," she said.

The girl did not tell anyone about the incident on the new year's eve as she was frightened.

"I've read that parents kicked their daughters out of the house after the rape. I had a fear that they would do the same to me."

The cousin who made sure that no one knew nothing continued to torment the girl. The nightmare of that new year's eve continued for Adinai for almost two years.

"He continued to molest and rape me, but I did not know what to do," she said.

The most difficult thing at that period, according to the girl, was to want to keep living.

"Yes, I have thought about suicide afterwards. But at the same time I have wanted to keep living. And I have wanted to make my dreams come true no matter what," Adinai said.

In summer 2022, the girl, who was tired of harassment and abuse from the relative, gathered some courage and told parents about the incident.

The girl's family preferred to believe the perpetrator's version. Therefore, it is quite natural that no one of relatives even thought to file the report to the police, so that the investigation could find the truth. No one had ever cared to have Adinai have necessary psychological aid. No one had ever thought of such support to the girl.

However, her grandmother listened to her words. The oldest woman of the family drew her conclusions and "talked" to the granddaughter.

"She has rebuked me. She said it was me to blame for the incident, as if it was me who encouraged [the abuser]."

Adinai describes her current state as "I'm ok, I try not to recall the bad things." However, she cannot understand why her relatives took the side of the person who used the child to satisfy his lust.

"Of course, I am very angry at and hurt by my relatives. Especially, my grandma. It's hard for me to admit that they did not support me but thought that I was lying," she said.

Home and family seem to be the place, where the child can hide and feel safe. However, most crimes related to sexualised child abuse are committed in the circle of close people. This picture is peculiar not only to Central Asian states, but to the rest of the world. According to UNICEF studies, the child's or perpetrator's home is the most frequently mentioned location for sexual assaults and rapes of children.

"Many children are sexually abused in families where father, stepfather, brother or uncle are abusers. For example, he always beats his family members, threatens them. When the child sees that the mom is under constant pressure, he/she shapes the opinion that aggressor is dangerous for mom, in the first place. And therefore it's better not to anger him, but to answer all his demands. Abusers usually force children to keep silent. Or even worse, manipulate them, shift the blame, threaten to kill mom, if the child tells everything to her.

Therefore, the child keeps silent."

Dina Smailova, head of NeMolchi.kz Public Foundation

In Central Asia, children who find themselves in the situation of sexualised abuse often do not tell about their experience and rarely ask for help because of the fear of revenge, feeling of guilt, shame, confusion, the impact of mentality and religion.

Madina Ochilova, lawyer and participant of the NeMolchi.uz project, said that abuse by the close ones and family members is rarely revealed. Often the child has a fear that no one would believe him/her, especially in the country where it's the tradition to listen to older people and rarely listen to children.

According to her, another reason for such situation is that abuse in the region means the shame upon the family, and the raped girl, most often, would be deemed corrupt. Psychologist Sofia Khasanova also said that survivors of sexualised abuse often decide to tell about the incident only after a while.

"Another mechanism gives false explanation to the incident, for example, that the abuser could not make it otherwise, and the victim deserved it. Or that nothing bad happened.

But this is just the cover of the pain that goes deep inside our psyche. Just helping us to survive.

And the person, now quietly, can tell about the incident as a given. And no one can believe him/her because he/she does not sob or tears his/her hair out."

Sofia Khasanova, psychologist

It was in early 2000s. Mukhlisa of Uzbekistan was 11 then and she was studying at grade 5. Classes were over, and she waited for the bus at the bus stop to go home. The girl lived in another district, and it took her one hour to get back. The old bus arrived squealing. Mukhlisa, with the disproportionately big schoolbag, made her way to the farthest single seat not to bother anyone.

"I was sitting quietly. A big fat man came near me, in a suit and with a suitcase in his hand. First, he started to touch me stealthily by the suitcase, then by his hand. Then he put his hand on my knee, trying to raise my skirt. I pushed him away because I knew back then that it was a bad thing and I feared to look at the people around me. I was too ashamed," the girl said.

Now she recalls the events that happened that evening and wonders why other passengers, adults, did not notice anything or just pretended that nothing was happening.

"Then he ran his hand under my shirt and started to touch my just developing breasts painfully. It was the start of puberty and often any negligent touch of my breasts hurt so much. Then he started to take off my panties under my skirt and rub against me. I remember those fat fingers looking like worms. I was silently crying."

When the bus was approaching another bus stop, it had a puncture, and the driver asked all passengers to get off. Another bus was to arrive in 20 minutes. The man, who was standing near Mukhlisa, also had to get off.

"I followed him to get off and saw that he was watching me. I wanted to leave the bus stop because he was there. But he saw that I was leaving, and started following me. Then I saw a woman with bags and approached her to help her. She agreed and the man left," she said.

After that, Mukhlisa decided to come to the next bus stop. But when she approached it, she saw that the pursuing man was coming near.

"I stood near some woman and got on the bus. My home was close. I saw him at the other end of the cabin, but there was a crowd of passengers. I kept saying to myself that he wouldn't come closer. When some passengers exited, I saw that he was almost near me, but I managed to get off on my bus stop. He got off, too."

Her grandpa met her after school and that evening Mukhlisa was running to him as fast as she could. She did not tell about the incident to grandfather, parents, as she was afraid of being blamed and scolded. Her parents were doctors and they had told about sex to the child, but insufficiently, and that it was something "for adults only." Therefore, the girl found shameful to talk about molestation to them.

"I was as lucky as possible that day. I have seen him a couple of times on that bus and I got off as soon as I saw him. I had to get home by the roundabout route, first by metro, then by bus, instead of direct bus," she said.

Long time after the incident, Mukhlisa again and again replayed the events of that evening in her head trying to understand what she did wrong. Maybe, she had to fight back more. Or maybe, she had to wear a longer skirt. Later on, when boys and men started to whistle, smack and shout at her, she kept telling herself that she must be doing something wrong.

When the girl was 19, she decided to tell about the incident to her mother.

"It was sad because when I told my mother about that and a couple of other cases, she said that everyone goes through that. And her point was that it was the women's fate. I was very outraged and disappointed," she said.

Sexualised abuse of minors can take various forms. It is not always clear if it is abuse. From the outside, it may look like a healthy attachment or romantic relationship in case of teenagers. Perpetrators can be people, whom children trust, and "befriend", - groomers.

In September 2020, the media of Tajikistan reported the news – a neighbour raped the 8-year-old girl several times when her parents were not at home. He did not hide the incident and boasted of it to his friend, who reported it to the police.

***

As Firuza told the lawyer, the first incident took place in June. The abuser's relatives went to the neighbouring village to the wedding and the 24-year-old man invited the 8-year-old girl inside.

"He asked me to come into the house. He promised to give me an apple and a pear," she said.

He gave the fruits to the girl, but then he took off her pants and started to touch her intimate parts. After a while, he took off his pants and offered her to touch and take his genitals into her mouth. Then he put the girl on the sofa, satisfied his sexual needs, threatened her, and let her go home.

"He said that if I tell parents, he would kill my little sister."

The girl was frightened and left. She told nothing to anyone.

The next day, the neighbour waited until Firuza came home from school and again invited her home. During the week, she was raped three times.

A couple of weeks later, the young man told about the incident to his friend, and he reported it to the police.

The case was initiated on article 139 "Sexual battery" of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan. The primary medical examination was not carried out, and the expert opinion was made by the man. According to him, on the moment of examination, the hymen was intact, the body, the mouth and the mucosa had no injuries, and the psychological state was within norm.

QUESTIONING UNTIL 12 AM …

According to the girl's parents, on September 8, 2020, a police officer of the 6^th police station called them during the evening prayer and demanded that they come immediately to the Directorate for Combatting Organised Crime of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Kulyab.

They started to question the girl. Her parents were waiting for her behind the closed door.

During the questioning, only a police officer and a psychologist, who did not help the child, were in the room. It all lasted until midnight.

According to lawyers, conditions of the questioning were breached as the minor may be questioned only in the presence of the psychologist, teacher and the representative.

The questioning continued in a few days. Parents were let in, but still there was no teacher present.

"Article 203, Criminal Procedure Code of Tajikistan, was breached when they questioned the minor victim. They received evidence during the first questioning, and this form of questioning is not approved by law," the lawyer said.

The first official questioning had to take place on September 26, but the lawyer decided not to hold it because of the absence of the psychologist and teacher.

On October 8, the investigator again invited the girl to the questioning, which lasted for more than two hours. With no psychologist and teacher present. The investigative authorities justified it saying that specialists were on their way there.

According to the lawyer, the questioning was very difficult. Every wrong step could cause additional psychological traumas to the child.

LIVING WHERE NO ONE KNOWS HER

When the trial began, relatives of the accused brought pressure on the girl and her parents. They tried to make them drop the charges.

There was more buzz about it. Children in the neighbourhood stopped playing with Firuza. Every day, she looked more depressed, started to cry often, and begged parents to leave and "live where no one knows her."

To calm the child and stop nightmares, mother told her that the neighbour died and she would never see him again.

Only after a while, when the lawyer of "Legal Initiative" joined the defence of Firuza, he filed a petition to hold closed court sessions, and to hold questioning of the child in the friendly room, where she would not see the abuser.

* A friendly room is a special questioning room for children, where a trained psychologist talks to the child. The investigator stays in an adjacent room and sends questions to the psychologist by means of special equipment.

The court agreed only to closed session. All other demands were dismissed.

The most difficult thing was to prepare Firuza for court as she would see the abuser there again. The lawyer told her that they made a special injection to him to bring him to life again, and then they would make one more injection to him so that he dies, and she would not see him again.

The investigation and court on Firuza's case lasted for five months. During this period, she was questioned several times, and three court sessions were held.

Court sessions were either postponed from time to time or held much later than the time specified. The first session was held on January 2, 2021 only.

The process was held in winter. The child was freezing, the hall was cold, chairs were broken, the environment was depressing. During the interrogation, the criminal was putting pressure on the girl and tried to talk to her. The judge, defence and prosecutor tried to calm him down, but it almost turned into scuffle. As a result, Firuza could not express her thoughts clearly.

After the first session, the court was told that the girl would not attend the sessions. Mother and lawyer were afraid that Firuza could get worse. Moreover, after every court session, the defendant's relatives gathered outside and supported him.


5 YEARS INSTEAD OF 18

On January 13, the final session was held on the case of Firuza. The criminal denied everything and said that he was tortured during interrogations.

The prosecutor asked 18 years in the maximum security prison. But because of the poor investigative procedure and little evidence, the court sentenced him only to 5 years in the maximum security penal colony.

***

Initiation of criminal proceedings and investigation is the most difficult period for survivors and victims. The interrogation per se is the repeated traumatisation of the minor who has experienced the sexualised abuse. The child has to go through the traumatic experience again by going back to the situation of abuse. Such interrogations are usually held not one or two times.

According to Dinara Davletbaeva, director of the Centre for Children Surviving Abuse and Ill-Treatment (Kyrgyzstan), sometimes investigators do not prepare for interrogation in advance, miss important moments, and repeatedly call the child to ask additional or clarifying questions.

"As to judges, they are led by defendants' lawyers, call children in for questioning, although all circumstances are clear and records of interrogations are on file," she said.

Not all Central Asian countries have detailed procedures for investigation of cases of sexualised child abuse. And even if norms of child-friendly procedure are available on paper, they are not used in practice.

According to lawyer Dilafruz Samadova, Tajikistan has no special protocol, and such cases are investigated on general grounds, while forensic examination of the hymen in girls is performed by men.

"In one of my cases, mother told me that the girl was seated on a special chair and was forced to spread her legs so that male doctors could check the abuse victim's hymen. No preliminary talks had been carried out with the girl, no female experts were present, no psychologist was there to support the girl."

Dilafruz Samadova, lawyer

According to lawyer Khudoinazar Artykov, the capacity of law enforcement officers in such cases does not always enable them to evaluate correctly the incidents and to qualify the perpetrator's actions properly. Facts of abuse are often qualified as non-violent sexual actions, even if the child is young. As a result, the abuser gets mild punishment or released.

Not to aggravate the condition of the child who experienced sexualised abuse, psychologist Nargis Toimastova recommends all participants of the investigative process to abide by the following rules:

Trust the child and accept him/her. Specialist should be prepared to meet with "weird" children.

• Be empathic and understanding;
• Have skills and experience of communicating with children and be careful of what and how they tell;
• Ensure psychological support;
• Keep confidentiality.

The last recommendation is rarely followed in Central Asian states – names of minors and details of the investigation are disclosed, cases are not always considered in closed sessions.

"Because details of cases are disclosed, the society learns the names of the victim and the suspect, and bullying occurs. And people lose trust in the law enforcement bodies," Artykov said.

According to Elena Zaichenko, coordinator of the UNICEF programme for protection of children in the Kyrgyz Republic, in Kyrgyzstan police officers receive biography of the victim from school and neighbours. So, confidentiality is out of question.

She emphasised that it aggravates the psychological state of the child, first. The family has to take the child to another region or at least village because neighbours will not leave the family in peace.

"No biography of the victim must affect the inevitability of punishment in case of child abuse," the UNICEF specialist said.

PRINCIPLES OF CHILD-FRIENDLY INVESTIGATION OF SEXUALISED ABUSE CASES:

* Prepared together with Elena Zaichenko, coordinator of the UNICEF programme for protection of children in the Kyrgyz Republic

Every high-profile case of sexualised child abuse appearing on the media and then discussed on social media always provokes proposals to castrate rapists or impose death penalty on them.

Among Central Asian states, only Kazakhstan has had the practice of chemical castration since 2018. It is carried out by court decision based on forensic-psychiatric examination.

In other states of the region, the issue of tougher penalties for child abuse appears on the agenda from time to time.

In February 2021, children's ombudsman of Tajikistan Radzhabmo Khabibullozoda said that the interagency working group addressed the issue of tougher penalty for sexual abuse of minors, including chemical castration.

In early September 2022, local residents of Kadamdzhai district of Batken region, Kyrgyzstan, found the body of eighth grade murdered pupil Aidai Kochkorova in the mudflow conduit. As it was found later, the girl was first raped, and then strangled.

Amid this news, member of parliament Yrysbek Atazhanov offered to impose death penalty for paedophilia. The parliamentarian with his anti-constitutional initiative was supported by his colleagues.

However, human rights experts believe that such proposals coming from tribunes are merely the populism as the return of death penalty would not decrease the number of crimes in reality.

Lawyer Arsen Ambaryan emphasises that in terms of criminology the return of death penalty is useless as it does not influence the crime rate. In Kyrgyzstan, death penalty (replaced by life imprisonment) has not been used since 1998, but the statistics has not greatly changed since the moratorium.

"This point of view is supported by the official statistics of two kinds of crimes – homicides and rapes. In 1990, 603 facts of homicide were recorded, and in 2021 – 182. 352 cases of rape were reported in 1990, and 235 in 2021," the expert said.

In Kazakhstan, dozens of persons have been sentenced to chemical castration in four years. However, according to Dina Smailova, head of "NeMolchi.kz" Public Foundation, this measure is far from being effective.

She made an example of the US, where people who have served term for sexualised child abuse, are constantly monitored by the state. They must take medicine and visit a psychologist. If they skip one session with the specialist, he/she goes to police.

In 1994, the United States adopted the so-called Megan's Law*. According to it, law enforcement bodies must provide open access to the database of people who are registered for various sexual offences. Information about them is placed on websites with public access, and can be printed in newspapers and distributed via booklets.

Moreover, those convicted of sexualised child abuse must give notice to local law enforcement bodies of change in their residence and work.