Kyrgyzstan: The Rule of Law Programme in the Kyrgyz Republic – 2nd phase (ROLPRO2)

Details

Published: April 29, 2020

EU Grant Project

The Rule of Law Programme, Kyrgyz Republic – 2nd phase (ROLPRO2)
May 2018 – December 2022
IRZ Juniorpartner
Budget: 12,2 Mio. Euro
Team leader: Dr. Stefanos Kareklas
Responsible at the IRZ: Angela Schmeink, Angela Lummel

Since 2014, the EU has funded a large-scale project for the promotion of the rule of law in Kyrgyzstan.

Whilst the first phase until the end of April 2018 was funded with EUR 9.5 million, phase 2 from May 2018 will seamlessly continue the project until 2022 with a total volume of EUR 12.2 million and lift it to a higher programme level. As in phase 1, the programme is being implemented by a consortium led by GIZ. IRZ as the second-largest partner makes a major contribution with two long-term experts. The long-term experts cover the topics of court organisation, e-justice and legislation and are supported in their work by short-term experts from Germany and other countries.

In phase 2, the objectives of the programme have been extended. As well as the reinforcement of a justice and court system governed by the rule of law and support in the field of legislation procedures, they now also focus in particular on strengthening public prosecutors' offices. The reform efforts introduced by the Kyrgyz government and state institutions and supported by the project are directed towards increasing the effectiveness of judicial administration, creating transparency and credibility within judicial and court structures and fighting corruption. The main areas of focus of the IRZ component cover the modernisation of the way courts operate, including the introduction of a system of electronic files and court information and court management (e-justice), as well as legislative reforms.

The legislation component

The legislation component covers web-based public participation in legislative procedures and the digitalisation of the legislative procedure.
The IRZ experts and their Kyrgyz partners have set up a test portal on the Internet for public consultation on draft legislation, which has been online since the beginning of March 2020. The test portal is currently being developed further, with the fine tuning of various functions and features. The new search mode should make it easier to look for key words, individual areas of the law and legislative bodies, whilst the newsletter function ensures that those who are interested receive regular notifications about new draft laws. The plan is for legislative bodies in Kyrgyzstan to publish all draft laws on this website in future, so that citizens, associations and other representatives of civil society can then comment on them. Since it is compulsory for legislative bodies to answer these comments, the legislative procedure will become more transparent overall.

The IRZ experts will provide support for the online portal by supplying the necessary hardware components, as well as introducing a comprehensive countrywide training programme and a supporting advertising campaign in Kyrgyzstan. Once the definitive version of the website is online, accompanied by an app for mobile devices, this should lead to greater participation, increased transparency and more comments on draft legislation.

The IRZ experts are also involved in providing digital support for the legislative procedure. By the end of 2020, software will be developed to record legal provisions in the correct format and structure. There are plans to increase the level of cooperation in this area with German experts and with the European Commission, which is responsible for a similar European project called LEOS (“Legislation Editing Open Software”), currently being developed as open-source software. Germany’s experiences with eNorm and with the ongoing e-legislation project will have an important role to play in the implementation of this software. The second phase of the work in this area involves the digitalisation of operating procedures in the legislative process (including document management). Support for the Kyrgyz government also covers the organisation of training events and the development of handbooks on legislation.

The court management component

In the area of court management, particular progress has been made in the establishment of a model for the auditing of courts. In autumn 2019, a working group from the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan presented a draft for the introduction of a model, which is fundamentally based on similar models in Austria and Germany and has also been supported by national and international project experts. The draft includes a handbook covering general principles, as well as specific instructions including check lists for carrying out audits locally. Essentially, the model provides for the regular auditing of all courts, with the objective of guaranteeing modern and high-quality judicial services and improving internal procedures. Whilst the current system, which follows the Soviet tradition known as “Proverka” (Russian for “review”), places the emphasis on examining case law in the court, this aspect will take much more of a back seat with the new model (in accordance with European standards). This draft is currently being reviewed by the justice system and there appears to be quite a lot of interest in introducing the model. This is also evident in the fact that the judicial system has already approached the project team with its own initial suggestions for specific training and a request for the relevant support.

The e-justice component

A great deal of progress has been made in the area of e-justice, which is about the introduction of a system of electronic files and court information called AIS Suda. Driven by a major digitalisation initiative across the entire public sector, the judicial system has introduced AIS Suda in all 64 courts of first instance, having started by introducing the system in three pilot courts in 2019. As in previous years, the RoLPRO2 project provided financial support throughout all the steps involved in implementation, as well as supplying the necessary expertise and help with logistics. Over a short period in 2019, around 1000 users were trained nationwide and consistent progress was also made in the technical development and enhancement of the system’s functionality. Other tasks included connecting the system to other existing electronic registers via the state digital Tunduk portal. Thanks to this integration, it is now possible, for example, to compare data in AIS Suda with data on individuals in the state registry office. The full nationwide launch of AIS Suda also allowed the promise of the automatic allocation of cases to be fulfilled. In the absence of a definitive plan for the distribution of business to courts in Kyrgyzstan, the system uses a clever algorithm to allocate cases to judges instead of this task falling to the presiding judge.

For more than a year now, AIS Suda has been operated independently by Adilet Sot, the IT service provider to the judicial system, at its own data centre. Adilet Sot also provides the appropriate user support. The private software firm, which developed the system right from the start, is still responsible for providing further development and troubleshooting. The judicial system would like to take over these tasks entirely in the future. Key areas for development now include preparing for full functionality and the development of AIS Suda for the second instance, the involvement of the third instance in the exchange of data and documents between all judicial authorities and the implementation of a data interface between AIS Suda and the electronic system used by public prosecutor’s offices in criminal cases.

Authors: Christoph Kopecky and Gergely Bánhegyi (long-term experts for the project)