Day: July 24, 2025

Kazakhstan is preparing legislative amendments that will significantly increase criminal liability for violence against medical personnel, equating such offenses with attacks on law enforcement officers.

The initiative follows a directive from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who urged the government to take stronger action to protect medical staff amid a growing number of violent incidents. At a recent meeting, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov reviewed proposals presented by Health Minister Akmaral Alnazarova.

The Ministry of Health is drafting legislation that would classify attacks on healthcare workers in the same legal category as assaults on police officers. Proposed measures also include equipping staff with smart video badges, installing comprehensive security systems in hospitals, and deploying permanent police posts in emergency departments.

Under the current Criminal Code, an attack on a law enforcement officer is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while attempted murder carries a sentence of 10 to 15 years with property confiscation.

Speaking at a briefing, Minister Alnazarova announced the introduction of a new article in the Criminal Code addressing threats and violence against medical workers. Threats alone could result in up to two years’ restriction of liberty. Violence against a single medical worker may carry a sentence of 1 to 10 years, while attacks involving multiple perpetrators or targeting groups of workers could lead to up to 15 years of imprisonment.

“These are adequate and necessary measures to protect our medical workers,” Alnazarova said, adding that the bill would be submitted to the Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, in September.

According to the Health Ministry, over 170 cases of violence against doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare staff have been recorded in Kazakhstan since 2019.

“Such incidents must be resolutely suppressed by legal means,” Bektenov emphasized. “I instruct the ministries of health, internal affairs, and justice to develop and submit the necessary legislative amendments to parliament within ten days.”

As previously reported by The Times of Central Asia, two recent assaults on medical personnel in Kazakhstan resulted in hospitalizations. In response, the health minister issued a public appeal urging an end to violence against medical staff.