July 3-7, in the village of Bosteri, Issyk-Kul region, a training is being held on family, inheritance, land issues, as well as on social security for vulnerable groups of the population. The participants of the training are lawyers, notaries, employees of the Free legal aid Centers (FLA Centers), as well as representatives of legal clinics throughout the republic.

“The protection and provision of vulnerable groups’ rights should be a priority for government agencies, in particular the Ministry of Justice. Now we must make a great effort and opportunity for the high-quality implementation of the KR Law “On State Guaranteed Legal Aid”, which is aimed at protecting the rights and freedoms of vulnerable groups of the population”,  said Marat Kanulkulov, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic in his welcoming speech.

According to Simone Boneschi, the chief technical adviser of the UNDP Rule of Law program, currently 24 FLA Centers function throughout the country, – “We are pleased that international partners, such as the USAID Joint Management Program, have continued our initiative and assist in the creation of such centers. Ideally, such centers should function in all corners of the country so that everyone in need has the opportunity to receive legal assistance.

Tool on monitoring FLA Centers’ activities was developed and implemented in order to improve the quality of legal assistance, as well as increase the efficiency of FLA centers’ activity. “This tool was handed over to the FLA Coordination Center for further use, and we hope that it will provide an opportunity to improve the quality of legal assistance,”- said Ruslan Moldokasymov, director of the  USAID Collaborative Governance Program.

The training sessions on family and inheritance law caused hot debate and discussion among the participants. Questions about marriage and divorce, property relations of spouses, collection of alimony and other issues are actual of citizens, who turn to FLA Centers. The trainers of the training judges Aida Seidakmatova, Asel Chekirova shared their rich experience on these issues.

Chinara Aidarbekova, judge of Constitutional Chamber of the KR Supreme Court and Venera Botobekova, an expert on land issues spoke about the purpose of occurrence land issues, amendment and termination of rights to land plots, legal problems arising from transactions with land plots, as well as about the law enforcement practice of courts in land disputes.

Leading experts such as Burul Suinalieva and Polotova Zhyldyz acted as trainers on social security issues. The trainers spoke about the state-guaranteed social protection of persons with disabilities, the types and sizes of state benefits, as well as the procedure for their appointment and payment.

The event organized with the initiative of the FLA Coordination Center under the KR  Ministry of Justice  with technical support of the UNDP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland project “Towards a Sustainable Access to Justice for Legal Empowerment in the Kyrgyz Republic” and the USAID Collaborative Governance Program implemented by East -West Management Institute in the Kyrgyz Republic.