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September 14, Bishkek. Today, a five-day seminar "ISO/IEC 17025 requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories" is being held in  Bishkek for specialists of the State Forensic Centre under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic (SFC KR) and representatives of forensic services of other state institutions.

The concept paper on development of the SFC for 2015-2018, approved by the order of the Minister of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic, paid special attention to the issues of quality assurance management of forensic institutions, and its compliance to international standards for accreditation of the forensic laboratories.   

International accreditation of forensic agencies allows authorities (individuals), who order expert assessments, to take a thought-out decision in choosing a forensic laboratory because the accreditation demonstrates its competence, impartiality and wide-ranging opportunities.  

Implementation of the international standards will:

(1) improve the scientific and technical level of the work of forensic laboratories and reliability of forensic expert opinions;  (2) objectify the evaluation of the activities of these laboratories and the assessment of experts’ opinions as evidence in court; (3) optimize forensic technology of an organization and examination of evidence, and also contribute to the reduction of terms of the expert production; and (4) ensure the possibility of using the findings of Kyrgyz experts in foreign and international courts.

The seminar will discuss the basic requirements and specifics of accreditation of forensic organizations by the ISO 17025 international standard, validation problems of methodological support as well as the establishment of the national system of accreditation of forensic laboratories in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The seminar was organized within the framework of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Program on criminal justice in the Kyrgyz Republic with the support of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs  (INL) of the US State Department