OSCE supports participation of Tajik delegation at OSCE/ODIHR seventh expert forum on criminal justice in Central Asia

The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe supported the participation of a Tajik delegation of four governmental and four civil society representatives at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Seventh Expert Forum on Criminal Justice for Central Asia. The Expert Forum was held from 27 to 29 November 2018 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Representatives of government agencies from Tajikistan’s Presidential Office, the Supreme Court, the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office, and the Unit on Execution of Criminal Penalties under the Ministry of Justice participated in the event. The civil society representatives were from the Union of Advocates, the NGO Legal Initiative, the NGO Right and Prosperity and the NGO Human Rights Centre.

The Tajik delegation joined over 80 other participants, including prosecutors, judges, penitentiary staff, lawyers, civil society and police. They exchanged experiences so as to use the acquired knowledge in policy development and reform in the area of criminal justice, including the value of probation as an alternative sentence to incarceration available in the court system and the role of the judge as neutral arbiter in an adversary system.

The Expert Forum is a platform to formulate and discuss approaches on how to improve criminal justice systems in Central Asian countries. The discussions focused on criminal justice reform in the region, based on shared areas of interest and a common need for reform, harmonizing national legislation and practice in accordance with international standards and OSCE commitments.

Main conclusions and recommendations were documented and will be reported in a summary meeting report of the Expert Forum by the end of March 2019.