Legal Pluralism and Women’s Rights in Kazakhstan: Judicial and Law Enforcement Challenges in Domestic Violence Cases

Abstract

This thesis explores how legal pluralism influences the way domestic violence cases are handled by the judiciary and law enforcement in Kazakhstan. Legal pluralism means that legal system of a state and informal norms function at the same time , for example, official state laws, traditional customs, religious norms, and community mediation, family (elderly people, relatives’ -‘ata-ene’(parents-in-law), ‘aksakal’ –male leader ) interuptions. Even though Kazakhstan has laws that are supposed to protect women from domestic violence, these laws are often not applied effectively. In many cases, especially in rural areas, informal systems are practised more instead of formal legal procedures. This situation can prevent women from getting justice and protection. The main problem this research addresses is the gap between the law on paper and how it works in real life. There is little research on how legal professionals like judges and police deal with the presence of both formal and informal rules in domestic violence cases. This study aims to fill that gap by examining how legal pluralism creates confusion, inconsistency, and sometimes even injustice. The theoretical approach combines legal pluralism, feminist legal theory, and the idea of state accountability, which together help to analyze how women’s rights are affected by these overlapping systems. The research will use a mixed-methods design. For conducting the research, official data on domestic violence cases will be collected and analyzed to see general patterns and statistics. Moreover, interviews will be conducted with people involved in the justice system, including judges, police officers, prosecutors, NGO workers, and survivors of domestic violence. There is a strong belief that the results of this research will help to better understand the challenges women face in accessing justice and recommendations will be offered for improving legal responses to domestic violence in Kazakhstan. The goal is to support efforts to protect women’s rights and strengthen the rule of law in a context where different informal norms and official state laws exist together.