The Aarhus Center in Bishkek together with the Higher School of Justice of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic, with the assistance of the OSCE Program Office in Bishkek, conducted two trainings for local judges of Naryn (November 3, 2017) and Talas (November 10, 2017) on “Application of the principles of the Aarhus Convention in the consideration of judicial cases on environmental issues “. 20 judges of local courts, assistants and consultants of judges participated in the trainings. Trainers of this training were consultants of the Aarhus Centers of Kyrgyzstan, judge of the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan D.Arstanbaeva and an independent expert, lawyer V.Boltobaeva.

The main goal of the training was to familiarize and educate judges about the principles of application of the Aarhus Convention in the consideration of court cases, as well as what legislative and regulatory acts were adopted in the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of environmental protection in recent years. The training itself was divided into 6 sessions and included the following topics: “Review of the Aarhus Convention and normative acts of the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of ecology and environmental protection”, “The right to access to environmental information and the right to participate in decision-making that affect the environment “, “The right to access to justice”, “Competences of authorized bodies in the field of ecology and environmental protection” and “Best practice of application of the Aarhus Convention and national legislation in the field of environment and ecology.

During the training, the judges received the necessary knowledge and answers to their questions. Upon completion, certificates were handed to all trained listeners and compendiums of regulatory acts in the field of environmental protection for 2009-2016, which were collected by the consultants of the Aarhus Center with the assistance of SAEPF, UNDP in the Kyrgyz Republic and the OSCE Program Office in Bishkek.