United Nations Country Team in the Kyrgyz Republic

1. United Nations Country Team in the Kyrgyz Republic

2. 1) What have been the main success factors behind the progress the UNCT in Kyrgyzstan has made in integrating HR in its work? • HRBA was included in CCA, UNDAF and subsequent documents already in 2003/4 which gave time to adapt to the new approach • In the UN Annex to the Joint Country Support Strategy (JCSS) of five key-donors the UN CT commits itself to applying a HRBA and gender-mainstreaming

3. 1) What have been the main success factors …. (cont.)? • Kyrgyzstan’s (still) relatively permissive / pluralistic political environment – most core UN Human Rights conventions ratified by Kyrgyzstan. • Small country which gives UN Agencies considerably more room to provide assistance in decision making • General openness of senior management and UN staff to HRBA combined with having a few key agencies / persons willing to promote the issue and to act as drivers of change

4. 1) What have been the main success factors …. (cont.)? • Successful cooperation with Treaty Bodies and Special Rapporteurs • Installation of an Action 2 Human Rights Adviser (HRA) for a two-year period (March 2007- March 2009) – • UNCT’s contribution to cost-sharing indicates agencies’ interest in HRBA • Training and training material provided by the HRA; program and project analysis • Restarted cooperation with the ombudsman institution

5. 2) What have been the main challenges that your UNCT has faced … • Bridging the gap from abstract principles to concrete action. With other words: to translate the HRBA into concrete programmes, projects, action… • Political sensitivities (wrong perception of state sovereignty, national and religious traditions) • Limited commitment of state authorities (duty bearers) to fulfill international Human Rights commitments; lack of knowledge among state officials about Human Rights

6. 2) What have been the main challenges that your UNCT has faced …(cont.) • Getting civil society to make better use of Human Rights commitments as an advocacy tool • Assessing the political risks of applying a HRBA; judging how far should one go, “how far can we push”? • Considering the multitude of development problems which should be addressed the HRBA provides only limited assistance to set priorities

7. 2) What have been the main challenges that your UNCT has faced …(cont.) • Donor coordination: As other donors are not applying a HRBA there is a danger of aligning downwards • Action 2 Project in Kyrgyzstan: The project has/had only limited funds to conduct activities and the initially planned project duration (one year) would have been too short.

8. 3) What support have you found useful? • UNDG website • HURITALK network and knowledge sharing • UN Common Learning package on the Human Rights-Based Approach • The raising number of training material dealing with concrete working areas (e.g. health, housing, food, HIV/AIDS, disaster prevention…) • Installation of an Action 2 Human Rights Adviser • Training of Trainers (ToT) on HRBA in Turin

9. 4) What additional support would you require? • Guidelines, handbooks, manuals which are more specific and practice oriented (example: address questions like HRBA and National Execution Implementation / NEX for programmes). • More guidelines and training materials accessible in languages other than English, French or Spanish • General HRBA trainings are useful, but more impact on programs and projects could be achieved through specialized / specific trainings • Increased training capacities on HRBA within specialized UN Agencies in order to reach out to country offices.

10. General remarks: • There might exist a linguistic problem to translate key terms of the HRBA (e.g. duty bearers, rights holders) into some foreign languages without loosing the concept which stands behind it.