Police Reform in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) is the package of measures directed to improve the work of the Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, increase of the level of trust to the police, strengthening interaction with the institutions of civil society, etc.
Contents
- Previous attempts of police reform
- Police reform in our days
- Monitoring and the first results of reform
- References
The attempts of reforming police were initiated in Kyrgyzstan in 1998, 2005 and 2012 years. The current reform program was launched by the Government on April 30, 2013.
Previous attempts of police reform
On July 23, 1998 the government approved “The Concept of Development of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Kyrgyz Republic” by the resolution # 490, it was the official position of the MIA of the KR on the main trends and principles of improvement of the operational and service activity during the transition period. The concept was called to provide the integrated approach to the development of internal affairs for the current period (until the end of 1998), the short term (till 2000) and long term (till 2003) prospects.
In the framework of the administrative reform during the period from 1999 to 2005 the regular quantity of the MIA staff was reduced by 50% due to the optimization of the organizational and regular structure. Also a number of services were reorganized in the department.
1 “The Concept of Reforming the Bodies of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic for the period till 2010” was approved by the Decree of the President # 76 on March 18, 2005.
In 2008 “The Program on the Internal Affairs Reform for 2008 — 2010” was approved by the order of the KR MIA dated March 7 and April 16. In the framework of that reform process the structural and functional transformation of the MIA system was carried out with consideration of the democratic principles and existing real threats for the safety of the society and state.
The Public - Preventive Centers were initiated and their experience weres extended. They were established for all over the country at the territory of the village administrations in compliance with the Order of the KR MIA # 162 dated 02. 28.2008 “On implementation of the Law “On crime prevention in the Kyrgyz Republic”.
According to the experts, the reforms of 1998 and 2005 were failed as they didn't bring notable results.
Police reform in our days
In 2011 the interdepartmental commission on the police reform was established to develop the concept of the MIA reform for the nearest years. The commission consisted of representatives of the government, deputies of Jogorky Kenesh (parliament) and experts.
The group of civil activists started working on the alternative concept on police reform. They initiated collection of ideas on the reform from the population: these ideas became the cornerstones of “The Alternative Concept on Police Reform ” (Alternative Concept). On February 20, 2012 that group of activists formed a network - Civic union “For Reforms and Result” that later included 24 public organizations.
In October — November 2012 the civil activists began the petition campaign – collection of citizens’ signatures in the country in support of Alternative Concept of Police Reform. More than 10 thousand signatures were collected and submitted to the deputies of Jogorky Kenesh, President and the Prime minister of Kyrgyzstan in support of Alternative Concept.
1On February 13, 2013 the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Jantoro Satybaldiyev held the working meeting with participation of civil society of the public. During that meeting he noted that all suggestions of the Civil Union "For Reforms and Result" would be considered in the official draft of the concept on Police Reform.
It pushed the Government to adopt “Measures on police reform” on April 30, 2013. The further steps of police reform were defined in compliance with that document. The measures for reforming bodies of internal affairs also contain suggestions of the developers of the Alternative Concept, including: hiring of the police officers on competitive basis, introduction of retraining courses in the Academia of the MIA for the newly arriving officers for service in the bodies of internal affairs, change of approaches to interaction of police and population, establishment of the joint body to coordinate and administrate the police reform, change of evaluation criteria of the police taking into account the public opinion and others.
In September 2013 the Council for Reforming and Developing the System of a Law and Order was formed within the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (Council) that was chaired by the Vice-Prime Minister on Issues of Defense, Safety and Borders.
Eleven subsections were formed in the Council to examine the declared trends of the reform in details and submit the mechanisms of transformations to the joint body for discussion. Representatives of civil society also take part in the meetings and work of the Council.
Monitoring and the first results of reform
The course of transformations in police of Kyrgyzstan is monitored by group of civil activists in all regions of the republic. The first results of monitoring were published by the Civil union "For Reforms and Result" in March 2014, the document contained recommendations for the authorities to strengthen some components of the police reform.