On 13th June 2024, in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CEP and the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic was signed. MoU was signed by CEP Secretary General (SG) Jana Spero and Minister of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic Mr. Baetov Ayaz Batyrkulovich. Ms. Ashita Mittal, Regional Representative of UNODC in Central Asia and Mr. Hans Farnhammer from the Delegation of European Union in the Kyrgyz Republic also attended the signing ceremony.
The Kyrgyz Republic is entering the fifth year of the probation institution’s establishment in the country. MoU with the CEP creates a framework for cooperation and further promotion and professionalisation of Probation Service. An important step in promoting the probation was already accomplished during the Press Briefing after the MoU signing ceremony.
Following this, the CEP Secretary General participated as a speaker and moderator at the International Probation Forum (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). The forum gathered representatives from five Central Asian Countries – Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan under the Project Just4all (co-funded by the European Union and co-funded and implemented by the UNODC in partnership with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights).
CEP SG was a panellist for „Reflection on the probation reform as one of the key constituents of the criminal justice sector reforms“ and a panellist for the topic ”Professional Capacity of Probation Service Staff’. Ms Spero moderated the topic of ”Rehabilitation and Reintegration Programmes“ where speakers from CEP member country Latvia were connected online. The representatives of CEP member country Georgia were present at the Forum and presented during the topic ”Digitalisation in the probation sector”. The Deputy Director of the Violence Prevention Network from Germany participated in the panel ”Raising awareness on probation: enhancing inter-agency cooperation and collaboration”.
During the two-day forum, participants had the chance to visit Kyrgyz Probation Service and the newly opened Situation Centre at the Ministry of Justice.