December 2008

 On November 29, 2008 the Advocates Training Center in Kyrgyzstan, with the support of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), conducted a scheduled training for practicing defense attorneys. The training is meant to boost the attorneys’ theoretical and practical skills on national and international legal mechanisms for the protection of human rights. The training sessions on:

• national legislative issues pertaining to human rights and freedom, particularly arrest warrant and constitutional rights
• the optional protocol to the convention against torture
• the “ombudsman” model as a national preventive mechanism
• and procedures of appealing individually to the United Nations.

Thirty-three practicing defense attorneys participated in the training, which they said was both important and effective. Long-term legal specialist Nicholas Hentoff, Dinara Sayakova, president of the public foundation Independent Human Rights Protection Group, and Ulugbek Azimov, expert-consultant of the Independent Human Rights Protection Group, conducted the training. The trainees were awarded certificates of participation.

To learn more about our work in Kyrgyzstan, contact the ABA Rule of Law Initiative at <rol@staff.abanet.org>.