A Decade of Legal Assistance to the Population, held by the Center for the Coordination of State-Guaranteed Legal Assistance under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic, took place in Kyrgyzstan from December 3 to 10, said Director of the Center for the Coordination of State-Guaranteed Legal Assistance under the Ministry of Justice Akjol Kalbekov, Trend reports referring to kabar.kg.
He said that, for the most part, the center had received appeals concerning inheritance - 220, right of ownership of movable and immovable property - 670, family law - 1 thousand 459, labor law - 569, criminal law - 15, administrative offense - 19, land questions - 508 and housing - 250, social protection - 1 thousand 678, issues related to the passport and other identity documents - 165 and other issues.
“During the decade, free legal assistance centers under the territorial justice departments throughout the country provided free legal advisory assistance to 1,291 people, state notaries – 780 people. In addition, the coordinators for the provision of guaranteed state legal assistance provided support to 366 citizens, lawyers included in the registry of the coordinators for the provision of guaranteed state legal assistance provided services to 344 citizens, individual non-commercial organizations for the provision of legal aid and a legal clinic assisted 32 citizens,” Kalbekov said.
He also noted that similar campaigns for providing free legal assistance to the population had been carried out in the shopping centers of the capital and in the regions.
“The purpose of these campaigns, besides providing legal assistance, was to disseminate information about the Law on State-Guaranteed Legal Assistance and about the existing Centers for the provision of free legal assistance. For the purposes of conducting a large-scale information campaign, lectures were also held in 18 major universities of the country,” Kalbekov said.
In his opinion, the main goal of the decade was to increase the level of legal protection of vulnerable groups of the population, to provide legal assistance, legal education, access to justice, assistance in the exercise of the rights, freedoms and legal interests of citizens.
“I would like to express gratitude to our partners who have assisted in carrying out the campaigns. The decade was held with the support from the project of Finnish Foreign Ministry, UNDP project, USAID joint management program and the European Union Rule of Law in Kyrgyzstan 2 phase program, which is implemented by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Soros-Kyrgyzstan,” Kalbekov said.