The Bishkek Forum, held in the Kyrgyz capital in March 2013, was an international conference organized by IDLO to strengthen the independence of the judiciary and improve the administration of justice across much of the former Soviet space. The Forum drew chief justices from host nation Kyrgyzstan, neighbors Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, as well as regional superpower Russia, Georgia and Ukraine to discuss the effective and transparent management of courts.
Participants adopted IDLO proposals for the creation of a regional institute for judicial and legal research, greater information-sharing and analysis, and a call for regional development and cooperation among judicial institutions. The key document to emerge from the Forum, the Bishkek Recommendations, included mechanisms for better and more sustainable court financing, best practices for developing and administering judicial training curriculums, and proposals for consultative judicial strategic planning processes.
