The women are subjected to harassment in a taxi every day. However, since it is difficult to prove, women prefer not to address the police, and if they do, they cannot bring the abuser to justice due to lack of evidence.

According to the Code of Administrative Offenses, humiliating harassment is classified as "disorderly conduct" under Article 434, which entails a fine of up to 5 Monthly Calculation Indexes ($32.26) or 10 days of arrest. However, this article also includes the desecration of residential premises and obscene language in public places. According to human rights lawyer Khalida Azhigulova, such completely different in their consequences offenses should not be united into the same category, for example, relieving oneself in the entrance of an apartment building cannot be compared to sexual harassment of a person.

That is, if someone regularly suggest a woman to have sexual intimacy with a smile, stalks her, annoys her with calls and messages, tries to touch intimate parts of the body, constantly starts unpleasant vulgar conversations, touches her in public transport, there are practically no effective legal methods of punishing this abuser.

According to human rights lawyer Khalida Azhigulova, on the one hand, sexual harassment is a form of sexual violence, a violation of the human right to the inviolability of personal dignity, and a type of discrimination. On the other hand, the Kazakh state authorities have long ignored this problem, and there is no adequate punishment for sexual harassment in the public space or workplace. In practice, anyone can experience sexual harassment: men and women, adults and children; at work, school, university, hospital; in the civil service and in private companies; on the street, in a taxi, on a train, on public transport.

The lawyer Zhangeldy Suleimanov notes that in 2006, a draft law on equal rights and opportunities for men and women was developed, which included Article 14: «Sexual harassment is actions, behaviour of a sexual nature that humiliates another person». This implied gestures, words, touching the body of another person in a sexual way. However, unfortunately, the draft law included this norm, but the Law «On State Guarantees of Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Men and Women» does not contain it.

«The Law was adopted; it works, but does not include anything about sexual harassment. I do not know the reason for this. Most likely, the Parliament was not ready to introduce such a norm into our Kazakh life. In Western legislation, a slightly different concept is provided, it is broader: it means any behaviour that may bring inconvenience. If a person does not like how someone looked or addressed her/him, not mentioning the touching, this is punished rather harshly. We were moving in a right direction, but still, there is no article. Today, there is no liability for harassment, although, probably, sexual harassment happens every second in the public space or workplace,» Suleimanov said.

In February 2020, the Members of the Mazhilis of the Parliament initiated a bill on the introduction of criminal punishment for sexual harassment in Kazakhstan. Previously, human rights activists repeatedly drew the attention of Members of Parliament and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to sexual harassment, which is often a pre-stage of a rape.

According to Khalida Azhigulova, the working group's discussions on the bill should have begun in the spring of 2020. Due to the pandemic, the working group postponed this discussion. The leader of the «NeMolchi.kz» Fund [«Do Not Be Silent» - Tr.] Dina Tansari does not understand what the lawmakers are afraid of and why the law on sexual harassment was not adopted yet. In her opinion, this is caused by the fact that harassment cases would be very difficult to prove in courts, since a number of criminal cases would have to be opened. The law is now structured in such a way that it is necessary to start a pre-trial investigation if the statement is made and respond to all statements. There will be many such statements, and it raises a question of how to prove them. If a woman provides incontrovertible evidence – video, audio – it is possible. However, even with such evidence, it still will be very difficult to prove.

Program Coordinator at the Legal Policy Research Center Ayazhan Oiratova notes that during the consideration of the liability introduction for harassment in a taxi, it is necessary to determine which actions are considered as harassment in general and sort them according to their severity. If this step is skipped during the adoption of the amendments to the Penal Code, it will be difficult for law enforcement agencies to collect evidence afterwards, and for the court to make decisions on such cases. These are corruption risks. Moreover, the criminal articles implying liability for harm to health, threats, illegal imprisonment, for harassment in public places (petty hooliganism) and for rape, as well as the articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses must be considered.

«This means that liability for harassment without serious consequences should not be too harsh. Therefore, considering the harassment consequences, I believe that they do not pose a great public danger, and can be considered a criminal offense. Accordingly, the following types of punishments can be applied: fines, correctional labour, community service and arrest. It should also be mandatory to provide for an additional type of punishment – deprivation of the right to hold a certain position or engage in certain activities, and to create a special register of offenders, since the criminal offenses are not included in the criminal record,» Ayazhan Oiratova said.

The lawyer Zhangeldy Suleimanov also holds similar opinion noting the need to sort the types of harassment.

«We have to understand what harassment means. If a taxi driver touches a passenger against her will, then this is no longer considered harassment in the legal meaning of the word, it is a violence, or an attempt to rape, or acts of a sexual nature. There is a criminal responsibility for this. If a taxi driver is just telling jokes with sexual connotations, he cannot be punished for this. No one will consider such statements. If a taxi driver starts touching a passenger, this is an encroachment on sexual inviolability, criminal liability is provided for this,» says the lawyer.

On November 16, the Kazakh media reported an attack on a woman in Almaty by a taxi driver who worked via the Yandex Go taxi search application.

Almaty resident Kuralay Galiyeva posted a story about the attack in a Facebook group. She noted that the incident took place three weeks ago, and the attacking taxi driver does not admit his guilt, and refuses to come to the police for investigation:

«I want to tell you that this person is dangerous. He did not take me to the destination. Out of stupidity and naivety, I paid him in cash immediately. However, he did not drive there and thought that he could attack and cut me after my requests. Unfortunately, I am unable to take any action at the moment and I do not understand what to do,» the victim writes.

The press service of the Almaty police department reported that this case was registered in the unified register of pre-trial investigation under Article 107 of the Penal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan («Intentional Infliction of Average-Gravity Harm to Health»). All necessary examinations were appointed; a procedural decision will be made based on their results.

Yandex Go support service stated that the driver was blocked in the application:

«The support service stays in touch with the user. The driver was blocked in the service, but we should note that according to the system, he drove the woman to the destination indicated in the application. According to the passenger, no one had weapons in the car. It is obvious that the law enforcement agencies should investigate the circumstances of this incident,» as Zakon.kz cited the company's statement.

According to the master-level psychologist Zarina Shteyer, taxi drivers allow themselves to violate personal boundaries, because they know that they will remain unpunished for a couple of inappropriate words or comments.

Ayazhan Oiratova believes that every official taxi service should have codes on countering sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and violence against customers. Such internal policy should be available to all passengers, and it should provide full instruction for drivers. In case of violation, the passengers should be able to call the hotline. Operators must take measures to bring a driver to justice, and in case of false statement, take measures against a passenger.

It should be noted that not everyone uses the official taxi services. Therefore, according to the expert, it is important to conduct a large-scale media campaign aimed at the importance of using an official taxi services. The state should be intolerant to unofficial taxis, and at the same time, monitor the tariffs. No one wants large transnational corporations to dump prices, because if local companies go bankrupt, it will become even more difficult for governments and civil society to implement the policies we are discussing.

If most people who were harassed use official taxi services and do not report harassment, it is most likely due to ignorance or neglect of these companies. Therefore, it is important to inform people; this can be done by stickers inside the car, as they do abroad. The state, in turn, needs to set requirements for official taxi services so that they do not hire drivers who were prosecuted in the past for rape or similar crimes. In Kazakhstan, people often quit «by their decision,» although there might have been a scandal and the employer had the legal right to fire an employee under the Labour Code. However, if the employee was not guilty, he can restore his/her rights in court. If not, the employer could be required to register the abuser who harassed the clients in the register of taxi service companies. It is not forever, of course. A person should have the right to improve.

Psychologist Zarina Shteyer has a similar opinion. She believes that while such situations are not regulated in any way by legislation and people are ashamed to talk about it, the situation will not change.

«In the post-Soviet space, the leading emotion is shame, along with fear. People are ashamed to share their weaknesses, because the society will condemn them: «She was not dressed properly», «She did not talk properly», «It is her own fault,»»- concludes Shteyer.