Despite rights gaps, UN expert welcomes Kyrgyz legal reforms

Despite insufficient guarantees for a fair trial and other defendant rights gaps in Kyrgyzstan, a top United Nations legal expert today welcomed the process of constitutional reform in the country and appealed to international donors to support it.

Issuing a formal statement on a visit to the Central Asian nation, Leandro Despouy, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers of the UN Commission on Human Rights, said he was concerned with the continuing distrust of the Kyrgyz people in their judicial system.

The distrust was "mainly a consequence of existing judicial procedures that insufficiently address the right of habeas corpus and guarantees of fair trial," he said.

In that connection, he said that many people he spoke to brought to his attention the inadequate qualifications of defence lawyers and the inferior situation in which they find themselves in vis-à-vis the prosecutor during trials.

The Special Rapporteur also noted with concern that judges have not been able to fulfil their role to efficiently safeguard the rights of citizens and strongly encouraged the adoption of legislation governing juvenile justice.

However, he welcomed the willingness of the Government to cooperate with the international community to tackle all these problems and hoped that the necessary financial resources would be made available by international donors to support the constitutional reform programmes in the country, at the heart of which he hoped was judicial reform.

"He is of the opinion that the present institutional reconstruction should enable the judiciary to play a crucial role in the protection of human rights in Kyrgyzstan," the statement said.

In the same statement, the Special Rapporteur also welcomed the support of the Kyrgyz Government for the resettlement of Uzbek refugees to third countries, as well as the Government's compliance with the 1951 Geneva Convention and the Convention Against Torture. He encouraged the Government to continue this policy without exception.