Published: 13 November 2014 г.
November 13, 2014, Bishkek. The second mission on assessment of the activities of the State Forensic Centre under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic (SFC) was completed today within the framework of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Criminal Justice Program in the Kyrgyz Republic.
In August this year, international experts conducted a comprehensive assessment of the SFC needs and developed practical recommendations to improve its operation, including improvement of expert examinations’ quality. The State Forensic Center currently conducts 48 types of forensic examinations, including criminalistic, engineering, technical and economic examinations at the request of law enforcement and judicial authorities in the process of criminal and civil cases investigations. In 2013, the State Forensic Center conducted 7585 forensic examinations. Every year the number of handwriting expertise, construction, technical and economic forensic examinations increases. However, the existing technical base of SFC to conduct forensic examinations is outdated and cannot provide the adequate level of quality.
In this context, assessment of implementation of the recommendations and organization of a workshop for the SFC and other expert services of Kyrgyzstan were the main objectives of the second mission.
The workshop agenda included an analysis of modern methods of forensic and technical examination of documents, fingerprints and firearms, as well as practical training on the use of special equipment for analysis of drugs in accordance with the international standards. The experts have conducted practical training on preparing SFC for the international accreditation, which confirms competence, impartiality and professionalism of the laboratory. The participants noted that “introduction of the international standards will (1) improve the reliability of forensic expert opinions; (2) reduce the time of proceedings and quality of expert examinations submitted as evidence in court; (3) optimize forensic technology of organization and examination of physical evidence, including time saving; and (4) allow the use of expert opinions of Kyrgyzstan experts in foreign and international courts”.
The mission was completed by a meeting aimed at strengthening cooperation between the expert services of the Kyrgyz Republic attended by the representatives of the State Forensic Center, international experts, Ministry of Interior, State Service on Drug Control of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republican Centre of Forensic Investigation of the Ministry of Health, independent forensic experts, the representatives of the Kyrgyz Accreditation Center of the Ministry of Economy, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
UNODC supports national efforts to strengthen the capacity of the SFC within the framework of its 2014-2016 Integrated Country Programme for Kyrgyzstan. The main objective of the UNODC support is improving the country legislation in the field of forensic expertise, enhancing the forensic experts’ skills and knowledge, strengthening cooperation between this expertise institution and the law enforcement agencies of the country, as well as improving its material and technical basis, including construction of a new building for SFC KR. This work is implemented with generous support of the Government of the United States of America, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).