20/10/2023
Bishkek - The Venice Commission organised, in co-operation with the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic, an international conference entitled “Criminal Justice and Human Rights - Emerging Trends and Challenges”. The conference, which took place on 20 October 2023 in Bishkek, gathered senior representatives of the Supreme and lower instance courts from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, representatives of the Ombudsman’s Office, other relevant authorities and academia of Kyrgyzstan as well as Venice Commission experts.
The conference aimed to analyse the perspective of the transition from an inquisitorial to an adversarial system based on international standards for protecting human rights. Various topics were tackled, such as prosecutorial bias in criminal proceedings and problems in ensuring the principle of adversarial proceedings, judicial control in pre-trial proceedings, presumption of innocence and problems of exemption from criminal liability.
This event was organised in the framework of the joint European Union – Council of Europe Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2024 co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.