Office of OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities presents Graz Recommendations on Access to Justice and National Minorities in Kyrgyzstan
The office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) and Kyrgyzstan’s State Agency for Local Self-Governance and Interethnic Relations (GAMSUMO) organized a roundtable discussion in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to present The Graz Recommendations on Access to Justice and National Minorities on 2 October 2019.
Around 50 high-level representatives of the central and local authorities in Kyrgyzstan, as well as participants of civil society and international organizations, attended the event. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bishkek gave a presentation on universal standards related to access to justice and national minorities.
HCNM Director Christophe Kamp said: “The office of the HCNM has been working with Kyrgyzstan for over 25 years, and this excellent co-operation continues with the current HCNM Lamberto Zannier.” Kamp noted that access to justice is a fundamental element of integration and the avoidance of tensions in society.
The Head of the OSCE Project Office in Bishkek, Pierre von Arx, presented his office’s projects in the field of access to justice in Kyrgyzstan, which include capacity-building activities, training courses and seminars.
GAMSUMO Director Bakhtiyar Saliev welcomed the co-operation with the HCNM in improving Kyrgyzstan’s national legislation according to the international standards for human rights protection, and he underlined the importance of continuing this collaboration.
The participants of the roundtable discussion debated the legal and policy framework in Kyrgyzstan and shared their experiences on how the provisions of the Graz Recommendations are being applied in practice in Kyrgyzstan. They also identified the main challenges and discussed possible solutions. One of the purposes of the event was to assist the Kyrgyzstan authorities in developing relevant policies to support access to justice.
The HCNM actively promotes his Recommendations and Guidelines through practical roundtable discussions and workshops across the OSCE participating States.