ASTANA. Aug 4 (Interfax) - The office of the Kazakh human rights commissioner has initiated amendments to criminal laws to prevent bride kidnapping from happening.
"The commissioner has proposed that a new article, 125-1, Bride Kidnapping, be added to the Criminal Code. We believe it will have a preventive effect and will help lower the rate of crime against women," the office said on Friday.
It is also planned to repeal the existent note to Article 125 of the Kazakh Criminal Code (Kidnapping), which provides for "exemption from criminal liability in the event of voluntary release of the victim."
"The Prosecutor General's Office has backed the ombudsman's proposal, and the amendments will be submitted jointly in the course of the legislative process," the statement said.
Bride kidnapping remains a common practice in Kazakhstan, especially in southern regions, it said.
Some of such actions lead to rape, humiliation, unlawful captivity or even suicide. "An aggravating factor is that such cases are mostly latent due to stereotypes, which prevent women from reporting this kind of violence. In most cases, young people are not even aware of criminal liability. Few know that it's a grave crime and an egregious violation of the human right to personal security and freedom," the statement said.
An analysis of kidnapping cases indicates that 214 criminal offenses of the kind have been committed since 2019. There is no reliable statistical information about bride kidnapping due to the absence of a separate article in the Kazakh Criminal Code, it said.