OSCE supports regional session of Public Council of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry organized in Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan

JALAL-ABAD, southern Kyrgyzstan, 28 October 2016 – The OSCE-supported regional session of the Public Council of the Interior Ministry (MoI) to uphold civilian oversight of the police reform that took place today in Jalal-Abad city for some 160 participants, including members of the Kyrgyz Parliament, representatives of the MoI, local police, authorities as well as civil society and mass media.

The regional session aims to monitor the implementation of the government decrees in Jalal-Abad oblast on the new criteria to evaluate police performance. This includes public opinion surveys as an external assessment, as well as mechanisms of interaction between police and civil society.

The above mentioned decrees were developed with the expert support of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, and approved and adopted by the Kyrgyz government in 2015 as part of the police reform measures. These provisions create a legal basis for mutual co-ordination of actions of police and civil society, in order to ensure public safety and crime prevention.

"The next step in strengthening civilian control is to ensure that the MoI Public Council develops and implements management and administrative decisions based on the results of public opinion surveys of the police work or the external evaluation,” said Pavel Khalashnyuk, Head of Police Affairs at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek. “The Centre is ready to provide necessary assistance in this regard.”

Yalkun Dautov, Chairperson of the MoI Public Council stressed that the Council takes its task to implement the principles of civilian oversight over police activities and police reform seriously. “The Police Council is ready to enhance its role in the future work related to the external evaluation and joint planning of public safety matters by police, local authorities and civil society,” Dautov said.

Suyunbek Omurzakov, First Deputy Interior Minister stated: "This meeting demonstrated that the MoI Public Council is becoming an effective institution to implement civil oversight, and to provide assistance in the promotion of the police reform measures approved by the government."

During the event, 10 sets of computer equipment were handed over to the police departments of Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken oblasts to counter religious extremism and terrorism in the framework of the OSCE’s Combatting Organized Crime Project. Moreover, the regional session will oversee the operation of the Mobile Police Receptions (MPRs) in Jalal-Abad oblast supported by the OSCE Centre within its Community Policing Project.

The assistance to the regional session of the MoI Public Council is provided as part of the OSCE Centre's Police Reform Project.