New EU project contributes to reforming legal aid for the vulnerable in Kazakhstan

A new project “Reforming Legal Aid for the Vulnerable in Kazakhstan” is launched by the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia (EFCA) with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan.

The project aims to enhance the protection of individual rights of vulnerable people in particular in the wider criminal and civil justice systems, through improving quality of and access to government funded legal aid.

The total grant amount is EUR 311,192. The location of the action will cover seven regions of Kazakhstan –

Almaty, South Kazakhstan, Zhambyl, Karagandy, Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan and West Kazakhstan regions. Project duration is 24 months (from January 2017 to December 2018).

The project is a continuation of a series of EFCA projects to promote human rights, in particular of the vulnerable groups in Kazakhstan. It includes carrying out a large-scale research on the situation of access and quality of government funded legal aid, as well as monitoring and analysis of the legislation in this field. In addition, there will be a study tour to Georgia, in the course of which Kazakhstani delegation will have an opportunity to examine in detail the success experience of this country in ensuring access of the vulnerable to the guaranteed legal aid.

The expected results of the project activities include the following – to identify major challenges and barriers preventing vulnerable people from accessing government funded legal aid; to develop a set of recommendations for improvement of access and quality of legal aid, including specific recommendations to the current legislation of Kazakhstan; as well as improving the access of the vulnerable groups to the legal aid.

The project will be implemented in partnership with the Public Foundation "Taldykorgan Human Rights Center", as well as in collaboration with the external expert, lawyer Ayman Umarova. "This project is of great practical significance, as it aims to ensure an equal access of citizens to legal aid, with particular focus on vulnerable groups. To achieve this goal we need first to improve the status of lawyers in the country and create an effective system of legal aid provision through the use of the best international practices," said Viktor Ten, the project partner and director of the PF "Taldykorgan Human Rights Center".