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Kyrgyzstan
 

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Advocates Training Center Officially Registered in Kyrgyz Republic

The Advocates Training Center (ATC) in Kyrgyzstan was officially registered as a public foundation with the Ministry of Justice in December 2008. The ATC, with the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s (ABA ROLI’s) support, has been providing training to licensed advocates since last July. ABA ROLI, in partnership with the Centre Prava public foundation, provides funding and material support to the ATC. The ATC has so far offered seven continuing legal education (CLE) trainings to 190 advocates. Read more »

 

ABA ROLI-Sponsored Advocate Training Center Officially Registered in Kyrgyzstan

On December 25, 2008, an ABA ROLI-sponsored Advocates Training Center (ATC) was officially registered as a public foundation in the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic. The ATC has been providing training to licensed advocates since July 2008 through funding and material support from the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), in partnership with the Public Foundation Centre, Prava.  Read more »»

Attorneys Trained on Human Rights Protection Mechanisms

Attorneys Trained on Human Rights Protection Mechanisms

On November 29, 2008 the Advocates Training Center in Kyrgyzstan, with the support of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), conducted a scheduled training for practicing defense attorneys. Read more »»

 

ABA ROLI Coordinates Analysis of Kyrgyz Criminal Procedure CodeABA ROLI Coordinates Analysis of Kyrgyz Criminal Procedure Code

In partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training (OPDAT), the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) recently organized an independent analysis of the Kyrgyz Republic's Criminal Procedure Code by four international experts. Read more »»

Programs

In October of 2006, the ABA conducted a televised forum on anti-money laundering legislation in the Kyrgyz Republic through its Anti-Corruption Program.

In April 2006, the ABA sent a U.S.-based attorney as an Anti-Corruption Advisor to Bishkek for seven months to assess opportunities for Kyrgyz institutional and legislative reforms and to increase regional capacity to fight corruption. The Advisor prepared an assessment of existing anti-corruption legislation in Kyrgyzstan that discussed how well those laws complied with the United National Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).  Kyrgyzstan ratified the UNCAC in September 2005. In October 2006, this analysis was both presented to the Parliament and discussed during a roundtable attended by members of government, civil society, international organizations and the media.  In February 2007, the analysis had formed the basis of a draft anti-corruption law in Parliament that seeks to bring the legislative framework into compliance with the UNCAC.

The Advisor also built upon needs expressed by participants at a May 2006 regional judicial anti-money laundering training held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, by organizing a nationally televised public forum on Kyrgyzstan's new anti-money laundering law. The program aired in both Russian and Kyrgyz during prime time, and was complemented by the broadcast of an anti-corruption public service announcement developed by the Advisor and the Criminal Law Reform program.

 

In September of 2006, the ABA convened a conference on the status of Kyrgyzstan's defense bar and the need to establish a unified bar association in the country.

In October 2005, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) began a criminal law reform program in Kyrgyzstan. The program, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, focuses on establishing and supporting a unified national bar association, institutionalizing continuing legal education for defense attorneys within a unified national bar association and developing a national anti-corruption curriculum that helps raise university and secondary school students’ level of awareness of the consequences of corruption on society and good governance.

Since the program’s launch, ABA ROLI has supported major criminal law reform activities in Kyrgyzstan. We have worked closely with national stakeholders, particularly the ministries of justice and education, existing legal professional associations and secondary schools throughout the country.


Combating human trafficking through legal training


In October 2009, ABA ROLI launched a 15-month anti-human trafficking program in Kyrgyzstan, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Kyrgyzstan is one of the Central Asian nations that face both labor and sex-related trafficking in persons. The Kyrgyz government is striving to comply with the minimum standards used to prevent human trafficking, to protect victims and to prosecute perpetrators. However, there is a need for stronger and more coordinated efforts by local and international non-governmental organizations, and ABA ROLI continues to work closely with these stakeholders.

ABA ROLI has launched a program that will contribute to resolving the problem through extensive legal training. The program aims to strengthen the legal response to the phenomenon, through human trafficking prevention, victim protection and perpetrator prosecution. The proposed trainings will improve the skills of judges, prosecutors, law enforcement personnel and legal professionals assisting human trafficking victims, thereby strengthening national efforts to combat the problem. Through this program, ABA ROLI will establish three working groups, which will develop training modules for law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, judges and defense attorneys. Additionally, ABA ROLI will create and distribute a set of standardized guidelines for the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking-related crimes for these justice sector actors. To ensure sustainability, ABA ROLI intends to eventually institutionalize the anti-human trafficking trainings in state and other educational institutions.

Azamat KerimbaevAzamat Kerimbaev
Country Director,
Kyrgyzstan
8 Isanova street, # 4
Bishkek, 720017, The Kyrgyz Republic
Phone: +996-312-31-41-41/89/96;
Fax: +996-312-31-42-09
Email: <azamatk@elcat.kg>

Background

The American Bar Association launched its program in Kyrgyzstan in 1993 with the opening of its office in Bishkek. The ABA opened a second office in Osh in early 2001.

Map of Kyrgyzstan

Read more »»

Since its program in Kyrgyzstan began, the ABA has worked on major projects that include forming the Association of Attorneys of Kyrgyzstan, the first independent bar association in the country; creating the Library Centers for Legal Information in Bishkek and in Osh, the first publicly accessible legal libraries in Kyrgyzstan; assisting in forming the Kyrgyz Judges Association and developing its charter and code of ethics; and coordinating the first-ever public hearing on a draft law in Kyrgyzstan.

More recently, the ABA has established street law teaching centers in Osh, Jalalabat, Bishkek and Karakol; introduced street law in seven madrassas; created revised law school curricula on ethics and advocacy skills used throughout the country; conducted a thorough assessment of the country's legislative framework for combating corruption; and undertaken a range of programming using the media to increase the lay public's understanding of the law's role in their lives.

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