OSCE Centre provides training to prison officers in southern Kyrgyzstan

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, 8 June 2009 - A basic training course for all middle-ranking prison officers from Kyrgyzstan's southern regions, supported by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, started today.

The two-week course will train 86 officers from all of the country's southern prisons on penitentiary management, including security matters, education and treatment of inmates, human rights protection of prisoners, preventing torture and best international practices.

The course is part of the prison reform programme of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and its Osh Field Office, and is organized jointly with the Training Centre for Prison Personnel of the Justice Ministry's Chief Penitentiary Department.

"It is the first such training course for prison personnel from southern Kyrgyzstan, and provides middle-ranking prison officers with the opportunity to upgrade their skills," said Miroslaw Nowak, the OSCE Centre's Penitentiary Reform Adviser.

Aibek Turganbaev, the Head of the Chief Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice, added: "We value this strong co-operation between the Kyrgyz Penitentiary System and the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, which is aimed at improving the situation in penitentiary institutions and the humanization of the whole system."