State of the World's Minorities 2008 - Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan's Constitution prohibits discrimination based on religion or religious beliefs and provides for the separation of religion and state, yet Islam, which is the most widely held faith, is exerting a growing influence. According to the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, the human rights ombudsman, who is a devout Muslim, has openly declared that restoring religious values to public life will make for a more ethical society.

At the same time, Kyrgyzstan is part of the West's anti-terrorism coalition and is under pressure to maintain a close rein on militant Islamic groups. There is strong opposition to anything resembling extremism because of the recent history of instability in southern Kyrgyzstan and adjoining parts of the Fergana Valley. In a proposed state clampdown on radical religious groups, the director of the State Agency for Religious Affairs announced in July 2007 that his agency is drafting five laws that will tighten restrictions on religious activity.

In its August 2007 report, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed concern for ethnic Uyghurs and Uzbeks, who, the Committee alleges, were forcibly returned to their countries of origin after seeking refugee status or asylum in Kyrgyzstan. Regarding the clashes that had taken place in February 2006 between Kyrgyz and Dungan communities living in Iskra, CERD recommended that the government brought those responsible to justice, provide compensation to the families that had been forced to leave, and that measures be adopted to promote dialogue and understanding between the two communities.

Language issues are prominent in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz authorities still refuse to acknowledge any increased use of or status for the Uzbek language, even with Uzbeks now surpassing Russians as the country's largest minority. Despite being used in some official areas, the Uzbek language does not have any official status, even in the Batken, Osh and Jalal-Abad provinces where the minority is concentrated, and this has indirectly led to the continued under-representation and even absence of Uzbeks employed in government offices. Demonstrations calling for an official status for the language and for some kind of proportional representation of Uzbeks in state administration in the southern provinces occurred in 2006, and property owned by prominent Uzbeks was seized in 2007.