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Home Newsroom News and press releases OSCE supports human rights monitoring in pre-trial detention facilities and penitentiaries in Kyrgyzstan
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OSCE supports human rights monitoring in pre-trial detention facilities and penitentiaries in Kyrgyzstan

12 September 2012
Acting Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek Anders Troedsson, First Deputy Chairman of GSIN Kubanychbek Kinibaev, Counsellor to the Chairman of GSIN Kalybek Kachkanaliev, Chairperson of the Public Oversight Council Cholpon Omurkanova, Director of Freedom House in Kyrgyzstan Stuart Kahn and Deputy Chairperson of the Public Oversight Council Tolekan Ismailova, Bishkek, 12 September 2012. (OSCE/Svetlana Levina) Photo details

A report on monitoring human rights in remand prisons and penitentiaries under Kyrgyzstan’s state penitentiary service GSIN was presented at a roundtable discussion on 12 September 2012 in Bishkek.

The report was produced by the Public Oversight Council with the support of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and GSIN, in co-operation with the Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan, a Freedom House project supported by USAID, the Humanitarian Association Secours Catholique-Caritas France and the Human Rights Centre “Citizens against Corruption”.

Around 50 participants, including representatives from GSIN, Parliament, the Government, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ombudsman’s Office as well as judges and representatives from civil society and international organizations gathered to discuss the monitoring results and the implementation of the recommendations, as well as issues related to the protection of human rights of people with special needs.

Anders Troedsson, the Acting Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, said: “This report is a result of large-scale co-operation between non-governmental organizations and GSIN, and we hope that the role of civil society will further be enhanced. We hope and expect that the recommendations will be seriously examined by the relevant authorities. The OSCE will continue to support activities on monitoring human rights in closed institutions.”

Tolekan Ismailova, the Deputy Chairperson of the Public Oversight Council under GSIN and the Director of the Human Rights Centre “Citizens against Corruption”, said: “We all need to agree that the key activity to be undertaken now is the development of a plan of action based on the recommendations.”

Kubanychbek Kinibaev, the First Deputy Chairman of GSIN, added: “Recently, the course of reform has become much more active, and we are speaking about real changes, not formal ones. There is still much to do in various spheres - legislation, civil society, changes in the mentality of penitentiary staff and their attitude towards detainees.”

The monitoring and the roundtable event were supported by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek as part of its project on promoting the reform of the penitentiary system in Kyrgyzstan.