[JURIST] The Kyrgyzstan Supreme Council [official website, in Kyrgyz] on Thursday voted in favor of holding a constitutional referendum that would give more power to the country’s prime minister. Should the related parliamentary bill be passed [Reuters report] in two more readings, the referendum will be held in December and introduce new constitutional provisions that expand the powers of cabinet and parliamentary leaders. Opponents of the bill have accused the referendum of being a plot to allow President Almazbek Atambayev to assume a prime minister position after his final term ends in 2017. Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party [official website, in Kyrgyz] currently controls parliament’s ruling coalition.

Kyrgyzstan has recently been under intense scrutiny for a variety of rights violations. In March Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] EU leaders France, Germany and Switzerland to raise human rights concerns directly with Atambayev. In January a spokesperson for the Kyrgyzstan government discussed [JURIST report] proposed legislation that would allow the Kyrgyz government to shut down media outlets without requiring a court decision with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In October 2014 Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan to reject [JURIST report] proposed legislation institutionalizing discrimination against individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Also in October 2014 the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan issued a press release [JURIST report] condemning the proposed ban on homosexual propaganda legislation. In January 2014 HRW released a report [JURIST report] detailing abuses against gay and bisexual men at the hands of police in Kyrgyzstan. The report, entitled, “They Told Us We Deserved This: Police Violence against Gay and Bisexual Men in Kyrgyzstan,” found that gay and bisexual men have been subjected to abuses including physical, sexual and psychological violence, arbitrary detention and extortion under the threat of violence by police officers, despite the decriminalization of consensual sex between men in 1998.