IDLO/UNICEF Report: Justice Denied for Millions of Children
Every day, children in parts of Central/Eastern Europe and Central Asia have their rights violated, according to an IDLO/UNICEF report on access to justice for children in the region.

In Kyrgyzstan, IDLO strives to strengthen the rule of law and build a resilient justice system that promotes social stability and drives economic growth.
A key component of this work is developing e-justice systems that deter corruption and improve judicial accountability. IDLO also supports Kyrgyzstan in fostering a more efficient system for alternative dispute resolution, especially commercial mediation, thereby reducing the heavy case burden on courts, improving the enforcement of legal decisions, and providing businesses with a practical way to resolve disputes.
IDLO’s current portfolio includes assisting the Government of Kyrgyzstan to explore the most practical and effective ways to adopt the Singapore Convention on Mediation and to reform laws to introduce mandatory mediation and enforce their agreements. Additionally, we aid the Supreme Court in setting up mediation referral systems and enhancing the capacity of mediation centres and the Republican Community of Mediators, who work to improve the legislation, preparation and quality of mediation in the country.
Every day, children in parts of Central/Eastern Europe and Central Asia have their rights violated, according to an IDLO/UNICEF report on access to justice for children in the region.
Following the April 2010 Revolution in the Kyrgyz Republic, an interim government came to power promising to end many of the injustices that had prompted the overthrow of the country’s previous two presidents. Many reforms carried out during the interim period were focused on improving the foundation and application of the rule of law. Despite initial steps made towards progress in this area, the political events of 2010, including ethnic violence, significantly undermined potential progress in the rule of law.
After a taste of serving as judges, final year law students in Kyrgyzstan were won over by a role they’d previously dismissed as a career option.
More than 30 students from the Kyrgyz National University’s Faculty of Law took part in the second Mock Court Course supported by IDLO.
In a bare-bones, underheated court house in snow-bound Issy-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, a woman tells IDLO a story. This story is her own. She tells how, just out of girlhood, she was studying law, away from her village. Once, while on a visit back home, the young woman saw a car pull up. Men jumped out and grabbed her: she was, she knew, being bride-kidnapped.
Advancing the potential of the judiciary is an important step in generating a rule of law culture in Kyrgyzstan. To encourage this, the USAID-IDLO Kyrgyzstan Judicial Strengthening Program (JSP) held a Moot Trial on April 28, as part of its Mock Court Course at the National Legal Academy in Bishkek.
For the past ten years, both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been working toward judicial reform, sharing common challenges along the way. Yet while Kyrgyzstan has opened up to the international community and shown positive change, Tajikistan has been more reluctant.
IDLO has partnered with UNICEF to study the factors which support or inhibit children’s equitable access to justice in post-communist societies. The nine-month research project in Albania, Montenegro, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan will conclude in 2014. It will provide greater insight into local realities, concerns and approaches, and make culturally appropriate, sustainable and effective recommendations for policy and programming.
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.
BISHKEK, March 15, 2013 – An efficient judicial system is crucial to development. Yet from Moldova in the west to Mongolia in the east, underfunding of judicial systems remains the norm. Five countries in the region devote less than 0.5 percent of their national budget to the sector. In Kyrgyzstan, funding halved between 2008 and 2012.