KYRGYZSTAN: Support to Justice Sector Reform in the Kyrgyz Republic: Advancing Probation and Integrated Justice Information Management (JUST4ALL)

“Support to Justice Sector Reform in the Kyrgyz Republic: Advancing Probation and Integrated Justice Information Management (JUST4ALL)” is a four-year project co-funded by the European Union and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and implemented by UNODC in partnership with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR). It promotes the humanization of the criminal justice system in the Kyrgyz Republic and is geared towards scaling up the country’s capacity to implement its criminal justice reforms in line with international standards and norms as well as best European practice. The project’s two main components address two areas of criminal justice reform: probation and criminal justice information management, with LBI-GMR spearheading the implementation of the second component.

Project Topic & Roadmap

Following the successful implementation of the preceding project “The Rule of Law Programme in the Kyrgyz Republic – 2nd phase (ROLPRO 2)”, the second component of the current project aims to assist the Kyrgyz government in further improving the criminal justice system. This will be done by introducing digital means to record criminal procedural steps as well as to monitor the overall performance of the criminal justice system on the national level.

LBI-GMR joined the project implementation in December 2022.

Focus Area

LBI-GMR will provide technical assistance to the Kyrgyz Republic to set up the Integrated Criminal Justice Information Management System. The purpose of this system is to document every procedural step of the criminal justice process electronically, which is vital to comply with the national legal requirement of recording all criminal procedural steps. Ultimately, the Integrated Criminal Justice Information Management System allows collecting data on parameters of criminal cases which can be used to evaluate the overall performance of the Kyrgyz criminal justice system.

The Integrated Criminal Justice Information Management System will comprise a variety of modules, each of which deals with a particular set of data related to the respective criminal procedural step, as well as supporting submodules. LBI-GMR will contribute its expertise to ensure that the development of this system will comply with human rights and gender-responsive standards as well as data protection requirements.

Method

The LBI-GMR cooperates closely with the Kyrgyz Office of the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Justice Probation Department.

Main activities include:

• Technical support in developing the necessary modules and submodules.
• Ensuring that newly developed modules and submodules comply with human rights standards.
• Strengthening data protection safeguards relevant for the Integrated Criminal Justice Information Management System.
• Advising Kyrgyz authorities on enhancing national human rights guarantees by using IT-solutions.
• Developing guidelines on how law enforcement can use personal data.

• Project Title: KYRGYZSTAN: Support to Justice Sector Reform in the Kyrgyz Republic: Advancing Probation and Integrated Justice Information Management (JUST4ALL)
• Project Consortium: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Lead), Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (Austria)
• Project Leader LBI-GMR: Sofiya Lipenkova
• Project Duration: January 2022 – December 2025
• Funding Sources: European Commission, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
• Programme Line LBI-GMR: Rule of Law and Public Sector Reform