QURGHON TEPPA, February 15, Asia-Plus – A conference dedicated to consider issues related to activity of regional legal support centers (arbitration courts) was held in Qurghon Teppa, the capital of the Khatlon province, on February 14.
Ms Meg Luckins, Team Leader of Third Party Arbitration Courts (TPAC) Project in Tajikistan, noted that nine legal support centers, which are situated in nine regions of Tajikistan, had provided consultation, mediation, advocacy and arbitration to more than 9,000 people.
According to lawyer Yelena Ishonqulova, one of the most serious problems in the Khatlon province is the issue of dehqan (peasant) farms. “At present three non-government organizations work in the province to provide legal support to local entrepreneurs and farmers,” she said, adding that with support of specialists important amendments had been worked out and proposed to the country’s Land Code.
She said that to raise legal awareness of farmers they had organized a series of special programs on the television and conducted a large number of workshops.
One of participants at the conference, who wanted to remain unidentified, said, “There have been cases in some remote areas, when persons bearing no relation to the dehqan farms have received incomes from the farms’ work and nobody have reacted to that.” “It is impossible to raise legal awareness of farmers until problems facing us are covered by newspapers,” said he, “And these newspapers should be distributed to all remote areas.”
According to him, in order to ensure efficient work of dehqan farms it is necessary to provide them with newspapers covering in details all issues related to organization of labor, economics, finance, etc. “That is dehqan farms and local entrepreneurs should have their own newspaper,” the Asia-Plus interlocutor said.
The TPAC approach is to secure effective ownership rights over land and property shares by supporting access to information and advice, dispute resolution, mediation and decision making of panels of TPAC practitioners in cases where mediation between disputing parties can not be completed satisfactory.
The TPAC mechanism has already been successfully tested and applied in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.
Following a request from the Government of Tajikistan, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) is funding the introduction and application of the TPAC mechanism in Tajikistan.
The Project is an independent activity within the framework of cooperation with international organizations and local NGOs, supporting land reform in Tajikistan. The Project’s purpose is securing access to TPAC as the means of protection and guaranteeing of constitutional rights of the rural population to land shares and property of former state and collective farms, as well as to resolution of disputes associated with land lease payment, allocation of land in-kind, redemption of property by the former farm workers, disputes in the context of micro-finance operations and commercial contracts (input supply, marketing etc). The Project will contribute to building the trust of the rural population in this mediation mechanism for resolution of land and property and related disputes.
The project team is implementing the Project in partnership with the local stakeholders.
