Kazakhstan
The following Justice Initiative projects are underway in, or relevant to, Kazakhstan:
National Criminal Justice Reform
Kazakhstan: International Standards on Children's Rights
A pilot project has been launched in two districts—Almaty and Karasaiiskii—to establish a model system of justice for juveniles accused of crimes. Procedures were established for recording data on juvenile suspects and their treatment at every stage of the criminal justice process, from arrest through sentencing or acquittal. Police officers, prosecutors and judges were selected for specialized work with juveniles in the pilot regions, and the Justice Initiative and Soros Foundation–Kazakhstan selected lawyers and social workers on a competitive basis. Read on the Workshop on Juvenile Justice in Kazakhstan: Pretrial Investigation in Juvenile Cases, December 20, 2004.
Regional: Alternatives to Pretrial Detention
It is essential to identify and highlight the gaps between a state’s de jure and de facto compliance with international standards in this area. A clear, country-specific understanding of the real process through which persons come to be placed—and remain—in pretrial detention provides a foundation for project activities (such as bail supervision programs, assistance to judicial officers, or improved legal aid) to target country-specific lacunae, such as the absence of available alternative disposals or of legal representation at pretrial hearings. Paradoxically, many of the states which are the “worst offenders” in terms of excessive use of pretrial detention have enacted—and purport to apply—national legislation which closely mirrors international presumptions against the use of pretrial detention and in favor of the use of alternative measures. This is the case in three former Soviet Union countries in which the Justice Initiative is pursuing (in Latvia and Ukraine) pretrial detention projects or (in Kazakhstan) a juvenile justice project with a significant pretrial detention component. Latvia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan are currently ranked as the countries with, respectively, the 23rd, 13th and 5th highest prison population rates in the world.
Legal Capacity Development
Regional Focus: Clinics in Ukraine and Central Asia
There are twenty-five university-based legal clinics in Ukraine, of which fifteen have been started since 2000 by the local Soros foundation—the International Renaissance Foundation—with the assistance of COLPI. Clinical programs in Central Asia are at various different levels of development. Clinics in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan stand out as well-established high quality programs, whereas those in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have yet to achieve institutional recognition within their respective law departments. The Justice Initiative organized an assessment of clinical developments in Central Asia at the end of 2002, and is currently in discussion with local Soros foundations about regional and national activities to address the quality and institutionalization of these programs.