Author: EWMI Staff

Ministry of Justice Opens Two Free Legal Aid Centers in Kyrgyz Republic

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Ribbon cutting ceremony in Balykchi

The Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic, with the support of EWMI’s USAID Kyrgyzstan Collaborative Governance Program (KCGP), inaugurated two Free Legal Aid Centers (FLACs) in the cities of Cholpon-Ata and Balykchi in the Issyk-Kul Oblast on June 22, 2018. In accordance with the Kyrgyz Republic Constitution and the “Law on State Guaranteed Legal Aid”, the Free Legal Aid Centers will provide equal access to legal aid for citizens and increase the level of legal protection for vulnerable populations. In these centers, visitors may consult with a lawyer, public notary officer, or defense attorney, who are all included in the system of state guaranteed legal aid.

The Director of the Center for Coordination of State-Guaranteed Legal Aid under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic, Akzhol Kalbekov, attended the June 22nd opening ceremonies along with CGP Director, Garry Ledbetter, EWMI Regional Director of Legal Programs, Nicolas Mansfield, the Head of the Issyk-Kul Rayon Administration of the Kyrgyz Republic, Daniyar Imanaliev, the Mayor of Balykchi city, Almaz Mambetov, Issyk-Kul oblast court representatives, local self-government bodies, civil society organizations, and members of the media.

EMWI’s CGP Program is assisting the Ministry of Justice in its initiative to improve access to legal aid and previously supported the opening of six Free Legal Aid Centers in Isfana and Kadamjay in Batken Oblast, Jalal-Abad city and Bazar-Korgon village in Jalal-Abad Oblast, and Naryn city and Kochkor village in Naryn Oblast. CGP also provides assistance to strengthen existing Free Legal Aid Centers to improve the quality of the services provided by these centers. Currently, 22 Free Legal Aid Centers operate in Chui, Osh, Talas, Jalal-Abad, Batken, Naryn and Issyk-Kul Oblasts and in Bishkek.

More detailed information on the work of the Free Legal Aid Centers and their contact information can be obtained in the territorial units of the Ministry of Justice, and on its online map of legal services at: legalmap.gov.kg/ru and/or minjust.gov.kg.

The Collaborative Governance Program promotes effective collaboration between civil society, the private sector, and the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Program is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is implemented by the East-West Management Institute (EWMI).

Improving Irrigation Water Supply for Farmers in Azerbaijan

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Two new artesian wells will improve access to irrigation water for nearby hazelnut and fruit orchards.

Agriculture is at the center of life for families of the Khaspoladoba community of the Khachmaz rayon in Azerbaijan. Growing primarily hazelnuts, the approximately 50 farmers from Khaspoladoba own and cultivate 75 hectares of hazelnut orchards. For 85-year old farmer, Yadigar Maharramov, a father of eight children, selling hazelnuts from his one-hectare orchard is his family’s main source of income. Sadly, water shortages and lack of access to irrigation water had severely limited his crop productivity. Like Mr. Maharramov, all of the farmers in the Khaspoladoba community were in desperate need of irrigation water for their land. Looking for solutions, the community members sought support from USAID’s Agricultural Support to Azerbaijan Project (ASAP) and EWMI’s USAID-funded Socio-Economic Development Activity (SEDA). Implemented by EWMI, with support from the Azerbaijani government, SEDA promotes cooperation between citizens, civil society organizations, and government to advance socio-economic development and improve the quality of life in rural areas. 

In 2018, EWMI began work with the Khasploadoba community to establish and elect members to a Community Development Council (CDC) that would be able engage with all villagers to assess the socio-economic needs of the community. CDC members received training to better identify solutions to address these needs, develop proposals for community-driven socio-economic projects that EWMI could support through SEDA, and engage municipal officials in supporting their proposed project. After interviewing 140 community members, the Khasploadoba CDC identified the lack of irrigation water as the community’s most urgent need. While USAID’s ASAP helped the farmers in the Khaspoladoba community apply more modern techniques in growing hazelnuts, EWMI coordinated with ASAP to support the drilling of two artesian wells that would feed the irrigation canals in the hazelnut orchards. Community members willingly contributed 25% of total cost of the project.

Completed on March 1, 2019, the project’s launch turned into a day of festivities for the farmers. They are now able to irrigate their hazelnuts orchards by using the water from the new artesian wells. Having sufficient irrigation water available close by will increase the productivity of hazelnut trees and other fruit orchards, increasing income for local farmers. When asked about the new wells and irrigation system, Yadigar Maharramov stated that he is confident that he will have double the hazelnut production during the next season. “I have not been able to water my orchard for 26 years. Thanks to SEDA and ASAP that helped us to solve this problem. Now our lands are more abundant and our opportunities will be greater. Water is life, so this project has given us a life.”

Civic Activists Secure Recreation Status for a Public Space in Batumi

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Recreational status was granted to the non-agricultural land plots on Javakhishvili Street.

In response to the petition initiated by a group of active citizens supported by EWMI ACCESS Citizen Outreach Grant (COG) recipient Civil Society Institute (CSI), Batumi now has one more recreational area, where local residents can spend their free time. On February 15, 2018, the members of the Batumi Municipality Council (i.e., Sakrebulo) endorsed the petition granting recreational status to three non-agricultural land plots on Javakhishvili Street.

The Batumi branch of CSI began working with civic-minded citizens, including youth, last year. After initial trainings and other capacity-building in civic engagement and advocacy techniques, CSI assisted the group of local activists in organizing open meetings with the residents of all 13 districts of Batumi to identify their most pressing problems. These meetings, held under the slogan Your Voice in the City Council, revealed numerous problems, including a lack of green public spaces and recreational zones in the city.

In response, the civic initiative group developed a petition to the Batumi Sakrebulo requesting granting of the recreational status to the non-agricultural land plots on Javakhishvili Street, so that locals could use this space for recreational purposes.

The group mobilized the local citizens from round the plot-land area, secured the legally mandated number of signatures, and submitted the petition to the Batumi Sakrebulo in February 2017.

The Batumi Sakrebulo took over one year to review the petition. Throughout this period, the Batumi branch of CSI, along with the active citizens’ group, persistently advocated for the positive resolution of the issue through attending all Sakrebulo hearings, working closely with the Civil Advisory Council attached to the Sakrebulo, and using every other opportunity to voice citizens’ strong support.

Thanks to these efforts, in February 2018, the Batumi Saktrebulo approved the petition request and officially upheld the recreational function of the square, thus protecting it from external interventions, including but not limited to an apartment block construction.

The CSI project has thus set an important precedent of a successful citizen engagement in the local decision-making process and additionally, encouraged some of the involved activists to join the Civil Advisory Council at the Batumi Sakrebulo.

Establishing a Peace Museum in Cambodia

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Cambodian peacebuilders in action.

Working in partnership with local organizations is key to EWMI’s successful implementation of programs and ensures sustainable results. EWMI takes pride in its commitment to its local partners, and established the Partner Legacy Support Program in 2013 as a mechanism to continue to fund its partners around the world. EWMI is currently working with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, an organization that has played a key role in advancing peace and reconciliation in Cambodia and beyond, to help fund the establishment of the Cambodia Peace Museum.

After decades of conflict, Cambodia is experiencing a period of peace. However, Cambodians still face challenges linked to their turbulent past including the trauma associated with the memory and legacies of war, educating younger generations of Cambodians about the deeper roots of conflict and rebuilding the social fabric of the country to prevent future violence. Although formal justice processes
have contributed to some measure of reconciliation, a shared understanding of how and why the various conflicts from the 1960s through the 1990s came about is yet to materialize.

In part this is because young Cambodians have little opportunity to learn about the past, through their own families or within the formal schooling and education system. As the dominant narrative of the Khmer Rouge years places heavy emphasis on Khmers killing Khmers, Cambodians feel often ashamed of the atrocities committed, and older Cambodians often hesitate to share their stories with the younger generation. Young Cambodians (nearly 70% of the country’s population is under 30) not only have difficulty understanding what has happened in the past, but also encounter challenges gaining a comprehensive picture of the actual events. It is undeniable that Cambodia has come a long way since the 1960s and the end of conflict, but the success of peacebuilders in the transforming the country remains overshadowed by the residual silence surrounding Cambodia’s past, and the emphasis and attention given to the brutality of the crimes committed during the 1970s.

Although Cambodia has a number of museums dedicated to the nation’s experience with conflict, the focus of these institutions is often to document the atrocities, focusing on the violence of the past and demonizing the Khmer Rouge, rather than explaining how these events occurred, to contextualize them, or providing a picture of the past that serves to strengthen peace in Cambodia; a picture that is inclusive and future-oriented can play a significant role in working towards reconciliation.

Despite Cambodia’s long history of conflict and subsequent challenges in achieving reconciliation, Cambodians as a people have demonstrated great resilience in terms of dealing with and overcoming adversity so intrinsically linked to a post-conflict context, something that is missing from existing museums dedicated to the recent national history.

In order to address these gaps CPCS proposes to establish the Cambodia Peace Museum, an educational and experiential space geared towards supporting a wider national healing process; one which highlights the resilience of Cambodia’s people in transforming conflict and overcoming adversity, as well as the nation’s potential as a learning center for its regional neighbors.

EWMI is accepting donations on behalf of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies to support their initiative. All tax deductible donations for this project will be sent directly to our partner in Cambodia. EWMI does not retain any overhead on these donations. Please be sure to enter “Cambodia Peace Museum” in the dedication line. Alternatively, you may send a check to EWMI made out to East-West Management Institute, Inc. Please include “Cambodia Peace Museum” on the memo line to ensure that 100% of the donation goes toward this initiative. 

For more information about the museum please visit the CPCS website.

EWMI Supports the Construction of New Classrooms in Azerbaijan

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Residents of the Niyazabad community of Khachmaz rayon celebrated the successful addition of two new rooms for the village school.

The Niyazabad community in Khachmaz rayon, Azerbaijan, is home to one village school that is located in a building that belonged to the former village’s farm (sovkhoz) and consists of 13 rooms. The building was constructed in 1965 and does not comply with modern education and safety requirements. The classrooms are separated by panels instead of walls which hinder school children from concentrating on their lessons. Additionally, classrooms are over-crowded as rooms are too small and do not have enough desks for the 15-20 children in each class. In fact, the building itself is in a state of disrepair and no renovation has been done since its initial construction. The poor condition of the building, poor lighting, lack of sufficient space and the shortage of furniture have resulted in inadequate educational conditions for children of Niyazabad.

To address this issue, the Niyazabad Community Development Council worked with EWMI’s Socio-Economic Development Activity in Azerbaijan (SEDA) project to construct two additional rooms and 1 corridor in the school which have significantly improved educational conditions for 210 pupils of the Niyazabad village with joint funding from USAID, the Government of Azerbaijan, the local municipality, and community members.

On September 10, residents of the Niyazabad community of Khachmaz rayon, representatives of the local government and the municipality, officials from the Ministry of Economy and Industry (MEI), and USAID representative gathered to mark the successful completion of the construction of two additional rooms for the village school for Niyazabad community. The rooms were constructed by a local NGO, UMID, and co-financed by the governments of the United States and Azerbaijan.

 “The construction of these rooms made us realize how important it is to work together on something that will bring benefit to our children,”- said Donna Stauffer, USAID/Azerbaijan Acting Mission Director. She also thanked the community for their dedication to mobilize local resources to improve their living conditions.

Matlab Jafarov, the representative of the MEI in Guba-Khachmaz region, described various infrastructure projects in the regions financed by the Azerbaijani government for improving the living conditions of the population.  Mr. Jafarov praised the cooperation with USAID under the SEDA project and emphasized its contribution to the State Program on Socio-Economic Development of the Regions.

Implemented by the East-West Management Institute with support from the Ministry of Economy and Industry and the Council for State Support to NGOs, SEDA promotes fuller participation of citizens, civil society organizations and local and central government institutions to advance socio-economic development in their communities.

EWMI’s Socio-Economic Development Activity is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and co-financed by the Government of Azerbaijan.

Magistrates’ School Unveils State-of-the-Art Website and Portal in Georgia

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Giorgi Tshekhani, HSOJ Head of Administration, explains software content.

On February 6, the High School of Justice (HSOJ) presented its new website and web-portal to the public. The HSOJ leadership explained that the software package, developed by the Georgian company Idea Design with the support of EWMI through the Judicial Independence and Legal Empowerment Project (JILEP), includes three major elements: 1) a new organization website; 2) an online catalogue of the HSOJ library; and 3) a web platform made up of “portals” for the special use of student judge candidates, sitting judges, and court staff.  The student judge portal allows student judges to see their training program calendar, receive ‘alerts’ regarding class changes, receive class assignments, and view their evaluation results and class ranking. It also allows students to communicate with their instructors, submit class assignments and take examinations electronically.  Sitting judges and court staff will use their portals to participate in the design of their respective continuing legal education programs, sign-up for training events, and evaluate training content. Overall, the software package will allow the HSOJ to communicate with its students and professors with greater ease and efficiency, and make HSOJ operations more transparent.

“People know their rights and are ready to claim them”

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Cambodia’s Community Peace-Building Network (CPN) constructively addresses human rights issues by linking communities and dialoguing with government.

EWMI’s Program on Rights and Justice II (PRAJ II), funded by USAID, came to an end in December 2014 after six years of activity.  Designed to build the foundation of support for reform of the justice sector in Cambodia, the program worked to strengthen the voice of civil society in promoting change while helping Cambodian legal institutions continue their reform efforts.

Through a coincidence of timing, the tenure of the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in Cambodia closely corresponded with the lifespan of PRAJ II (2008-2014). Over the course of his tenure, the Special Rapporteur, Surya Subedi, made many trips to Cambodia, meeting with people from all segments of Cambodian society, and issued five substantial reports. In January 2015, Subedi made his final trip to Cambodia.  In his last press conference, he noted many of the ongoing human rights problems in Cambodia. However, looking back to the beginning of his mandate, he had this to say: “The major difference between then and now rests in the people. They are no longer afraid to speak out. People know their rights and are ready to claim them.”

Quantitative data supports Subedi’s observation. In the final months of PRAJ II, the project conducted a national legal aid awareness survey, mirroring in methodology a similar survey conducted eight years before under PRAJ I. The results were astounding. Whereas only 20% of those surveyed in 2006 were aware of the existence of legal aid and where to access it, in 2014 a full 54% of respondents were so aware, a nearly threefold increase. The dramatic opposition gains in the 2013 elections, and the protests thereafter, further support Subedi’s claim. It is significant that the themes of land grabbing and deforestation, a key focus of advocacy by many PRAJ II partners, were underlined by the opposition in the electoral campaign.

Social change is a complex phenomenon, the result of many political, economic and demographic factors. But there is no doubt that Cambodian civil society has changed in the past six years and that PRAJ II contributed to that change. The numbers speak for themselves: over 187,000 Cambodians participated in PRAJ II-sponsored constituency-building activities during this period, and over 35,000 advocacy initiatives resulted from PRAJ II support. The project trained over 37,000 people on topics related to rights awareness and advocacy, and by targeting the next generation of advocates and leaders – over 5,000 law students trained – amplified the long-term effect of its efforts. The visible engagement of legal defense teams in high profile cases involving activists and human rights defenders demonstrated the subtle power of asserting one’s rights, even when the results were unjust.

Cambodian civil society — and the country as a whole — remains fraught with problems and challenges, and ultimately it will be the Cambodian people on their own who must bring Cambodia to a brighter day. But over the course of PRAJ II, as Subedi noted, a page has been turned.  Whatever Cambodia’s future holds, its civil society will be at the center of it.

EWMI Partners with WRI to Monitor Deforestation

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East West Management Institute’s Open Development Initiative (ODI) and World Resources Institute (WRI) are teaming up to monitor and fight deforestation, protecting the lives of 70 million people living along the Lower Mekong Basin.

EWMI’s ODI supports an open data and information platform that uses visually compelling mapping data to track development trends on a country and regional level, including mapping the effects of deforestation over decades in time-lapsed animation maps. The ODI network is designed to advance openness and transparency to the broad benefit of society without promoting a particular perspective, agenda, or bias. The flagship site of this initiative is Open Development Cambodia.

The World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch is an online forest monitoring system that unites satellite technology and almost real time forest clearing alert systems to create never-before transparency on a global scale. By combining this real time data and displaying its effects in visually compelling maps that create context over time the two organizations hope to empower NGOs, the media, the progressive public and private sector leaders to hold governments and companies more accountable for forest conservation and sustainable management.

ODI’s Forestry initiative has already affected government policy. In late 2013, it published a map series of animated forest cover change maps in English and Khmer illustrating the extent and rate of reduction in Cambodia’s forest cover over 40 years along with complementary charts, news, laws and publications. This forest cover change page represented a new technical tool, produced by Cambodians, to help understand environmental changes and inform development planning. Until this page was launched, no attempt had been made to track changes in Cambodia’s forest cover over such an extended period.

The maps attracted important press coverage, making headlines in the Phnom Penh Post on the day after publication and the following day in the Cambodia Daily. It was discussed on a Khmer-language Cambodian TV program offering news analysis. Conservation groups praised ODC privately, with Wildlife Alliance planning to use the animations in upcoming discussions with the new Minister for Environment. Several organizations thanked us for the maps and described plans to use the maps as teaching or advocacy tools.

The Cambodian Ministry charged with providing this information has long been questioned by NGOs for not updating their forest cover maps since 2006. When ODI published its forest cover change maps in December 2013, this government ministry publicly critiqued them on a technical basis, but also offered explanations as to why it had not released forest cover maps, and stated it would do so by 2015. This suggests government is becoming more attuned to the idea that public expectations regarding access to information is increasing — and that the provision of information by an independent organization can increase public demand and government response.  When information is made available, questions about development policy direction, and posited alternatives, can be advanced.

Mekong Region (2011-Present): Open Development Initiative (ODI)

Kyrgyzstan Documents its 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

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The 16 Days against Gender-Based Violence Campaign was launch in Kyrgyzstan with the "Orange Your Day" flash-mob, organized by UNiTE to End Violence Against Women and Girls national movement.

The UN Women Country Office in the Kyrgyz Republic and the UNiTE to End Violence Against Women and Girls National Movement in Kyrgyzstan have issued a report and video detailing their very successful 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign. The campaign was supported by UNRC, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, UNFPA, OSCE Bishkek and Osh Offices, Soros Foundation in the Kyrgyz Republic, USAID, East-West Management Institute, European Union, the Embassy of Switzeland in KR, British Embassy, and other donor agencies.

Raising awareness about violence against women is especially important in Kyrgyzstan considering that the number of recorded acts of domestic violence is growing in Kyrgyzstan, and 90 percent of the victims of this violence are women. Sex labor trafficking is also a problem in the country. Underage girls and women from Kyrgyzstan are attracted and forced into sexual labor under the guise of being hired as nannies, maids, waitresses, and workers in other spheres. Furthermore, according to information gathered through the National Review of The Kyrgyz Republic in the Framework of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 60 percent of marriages in the countryside in mono-ethnic areas are accomplished through bride kidnapping (ala kachuu), of which two thirds are performed without the consent of the girl.

The 2014 16 Days of Activism Campaign in Kyrgyzstan included several activities centered on raising awareness of country specific issues to eliminate violence against women and girls, strengthen local work around violence against women, and strengthen youth participation and involvement in the Campaign. Some of the innovative events included:  

  • A graffiti project in Bishkek, encouraging youth to create street art about the 16 Days and HeForShe Campaign;
  • A self-defense project in Osh, led by a local NGO, on defense tools in case of harassment
  • Projects in Osh which had young people create handmade graphics on the daily gender stereotypes that they face in their everyday life;
  • A first-ever 16 Days project that raised awareness among sex-workers in saunas of Osh on what is violence and what to do if they face violence;
  • A project involving police in Talas, in which officers distributed orange ribbons in support of the Orange Campaign, encouraging people to care about peace in the family;
  • A unique project implemented by the Crisis Center Shans, involving perpetrators of violence, calling upon men to join the effort to combat family violence;
  • A video experiment on violence against women in the streets of Bishkek, to showcase the real situation when one faces violence in public; and
  • A project in Naryn, centered on the prevention of bride-kidnapping, among others.

EWMI’s Kyrgyzstan Collaborative Governance Program (KCGP) responded to UN Women’s request to join the campaign and provided support as needed, including providing support in the design and printing of over 11,200 informational brochures for crisis centers in Kyrgyzstan as part of the campaign. These brochures provide detailed information about where to apply for help in case of violence.

For more information about Kyrgyzstan’s fight against gender-based violence, please read the report issued by the UN Women Country Office in the Kyrgyz Republic and UNiTE to End Violence against Women and Girls National Movement in Kyrgyzstan provided below.

16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence Campaign Report

EWMI Increases Access to Medical Care in Azerbaijan

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Dereck Hogan, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Baku during the ribbon cutting ceremony in Garalar village, Sabirabad.

In December 2014, news spread among citizens of the Aran region that their access to quality medical care was about to improve with the inauguration of three new Medical Points – two in Imishli and one in Sabirabad. The new Medical Points, rebuilt with support from EWMI’s Socio-Economic Development Activity (SEDA) in Azerbaijan, will provide nearly 3,000 people with easier access to improved health care facilities and services. Each Medical Point consists of two rooms for medical services and one corridor for waiting patients.

Prior to the construction of the new Medical Points, residents of Agamammadli, Aliyetmezli, and Garalar villages could not access adequate medical care due to either the complete absence of facilities or the longstanding poor condition of existing Medical Point buildings and old, broken equipment.  Children and the elderly especially suffered from the lack of basic medical services.

“The construction of this facility is a clear example of successful cooperation between the governments of the United States and Azerbaijan to assist local communities address important needs,” said Mr. Dereck Hogan, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Baku. He also thanked the community for their dedication to mobilize local resources to improve their living conditions. Zumrud Tagiyeva, a member of Aliyetmezli community, is passionate about improving opportunities for people to receive the necessary medical care. “Every person may face a time in their life when they are in need of medical attention,” she says. “Receiving quality medical care is that person’s human right. One of the difficulties we were en-countering was the absence of a refrigerator in the former Medical Point for storage of medications, so community members were obliged to travel to the regional center to purchase medications.”

Mr. Yengibar Huseynov, Agamammadli Community Development Committee (CDC) Coordinator, remarked: “I want to express my deepest gratitude to SEDA for the implementation and funding of this wonderful project. Finally, our dream has come true. After years, the Agamammadli village community has a newly constructed Medical Point that will serve the entire village.”

Residents of the communities, representatives of the local Executive Committees and the municipality, officials from the Ministry of Econo-my and Industry, the Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Baku, and USAID/Azerbaijan Mission Director participated in the opening ceremonies of new medical facilities.

The Socio-Economic Development Activity in Azerbaijan is a five-year project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and co-financed by the Government of Azerbaijan.