DUSHANBE, April 2, 2009, Asia-Plus — HELVETAS Swiss Association for International Cooperation officially opened its branch in Tajikistan.
Press release issued by HELVETAS says that on March 17, 2009, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan officially registered the Branch Office of HELVETAS, which will implement the Fifth Phase of the Access to Justice and Judicial Reform Project (AJJR) in Tajikistan.
The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Since 2001, this project had been carried out by SDC directly.
“HELVETAS has contributed significantly to rural area development in Africa, Asia, and Central America”, said Karl Goeppert, Country Director for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. “HELVETAS has been working in Kyrgyzstan since 1995 and contributes significantly to agricultural and tourism development there. In Tajikistan we now have started to deliver technical support to the judicial sector and plan to expand our efforts in other fields as well”, he continued.
The goal of the AJJR project is to contribute to increased respect and protection of the rights of poor and vulnerable people in Tajikistan by strengthening the rule of law, access to justice and measures for improved administration of justice. The AJJR project intends to build synergies among its three interlinked components to further enhance its results.
The three components are: 1) support to local NGOs providing free legal aid to poor and vulnerable individuals, raising legal awareness of the population, and facilitating the analysis of issues related to rights protection; 20 support to the Judicial Training Center to render continues, effective, and up-to-date training for judges and other members of the judiciary; and 30 support to the Government of Tajikistan and to local NGOs to prepare national and alternative reports to the UN Human Rights Treaty bodies.
“Tajikistan has made some improvements in the delivery of justice, however, there is still much work to be done in key areas,” said Elaine Conkievich, Director of HELVETAS’ Branch Office in Tajikistan. “We will focus on such areas as strengthening capacity of legal institutions, legislative reform, and the right to equal access to justice for all, particularly for vulnerable members of the population”, she added.
