El-Too has organized a series of judicial consultations for women and duty bearers in the Issyk-Kul region, especially in the villages that are far from the region centres.
These consultations are aimed to capture the broader audience, so the project team has distributed the announcement in Facebook groups created by the Issyk-Kul region’s groups, in the village WhatsApp groups and the duty bearers, all to learn about this opportunity. As a result, we have provided judicial consultations for more than 120 women and duty bearers. The consultations were conducted by the legal expert, lawyer Arstan Kadyrov, who is an experienced lawyer in land issues and author of several legislations. The common land problems were recorded and prepared by our expert as anonymized case studies. These case studies are available on our “Useful information” section.
For information: Traditionally, land is considered as the assets of men, and despite the large share of employment of women in agriculture, they have no access to land resources and are employed as invisible forces. All issues related to land are solved at the level of local municipalities (budget hearings) and Elderly Court who gather for meeting once a year in spring. These meetings are only for men, so women are left out of the discussion. In 2019, the government issued a law for a gender (30%) quota for women in local councils, but during the first election in Saruu village in Issyk-Kul men demonstrated against women and urged them to cancel their candidacy, as women are perceived as not competent in land management issues. Local municipalities in rural areas favour men, who are perceived as competent in land management and irrigation. In addition, young married women are especially vulnerable, as they are often unemployed, often live with parents-in-law who are main decision-makers and have no access to land and financial resources. Elderly women over time can stand their ground and be more involved in decision making.