April 6 Deputy Prime Minister Gulshara Abdykalikova chaired an extended meeting on the prevention of divorce, non-payment of alimony, as well as domestic violence.

Members of the National Commission for Women, Family and Demographic Policy under the President of Kazakhstan, heads of the Supreme Court, General Prosecutor's Office, ministries of the interior, justice, information and social development, deputy akims of the regions, as well as heads of regional police departments, domestic policy, family and youth affairs, labor and social protection of the population attended the meeting.

Opening the meeting, Gulshara Abdykalikova noted that, on behalf of the First President – Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev, a new social policy, whose main task is to improve the quality of life and well-being of our citizens, is being implemented in the country. During meetings with the population in the regions, it was revealed that the issues of divorce, non-payment of alimony, as well as family and domestic violence are still relevant and require urgent action by all authorized bodies.

As part of the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Family and Gender Policy Concept in Kazakhstan until 2030, comprehensive work is being carried out to prevent divorce, organizational measures have been taken to combat the alimony debtors, as well as to increase the effectiveness of the system for protecting women subjected to domestic violence and reducing the facts of violence in family.

The implementation of the pilot projects “Reconciliation in Court, out of Court” and “Family Court” in 2018 had a positive effect on the restoration of the violated rights of citizens through reconciliation. The number of discontinued cases in connection with reconciliation increased by 5.5%, left without consideration of claims for 10% and returned claims for 57.6%.

Measures are being taken to draw public attention to the problem of non-payment of alimony. A wide madia support of the work is carried out in the media, social networks, public places. Practice shows that the initiation of administrative and criminal cases against debtors is one of the most effective coercive measures. After applying such a measure, the debtors repay the debts generated.

As part of road activities, prosecutors together with the shipbuilders and internal affairs agencies in 2018 detained and installed about 200 vehicles of debtors at a fine price (1st quarter of 2019 — 113). In addition, a complex of other campaign events to collect alimony is being carried out.

Over the past year, debtors repaid 1.1 billion tenge. The employment agencies have registered more than 6 thousand debtors as unemployed (fourth quarter of 2019 — 4 thousand). Through job fairs (conducted with the assistance of entrepreneurs) 1.5 thousand persons were employed (first quarter of 2019 — 511).

Measures are being taken to protect women and children from domestic violence. The goal is to reduce domestic crime by 2020 by 20%, by 2050 — by 50%. In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a unit for the protection of women from violence was introduced (124 employees), 36 crisis centers work, including 24 with shelter. Since Jan. 1, 2018, the term of administrative detention of the offender has been increased from 3 to 24 hours (Article 789 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

Since 2017, a pilot project “Kazakhstan without Violence in the Family” has been implemented in Shymkent and the Turkestan region, aimed at creating effective mechanisms for the prevention of domestic violence.

Following the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Abdykalikova gave a number of specific instructions to state bodies.