Equal before the Law: Access to Justice in Central Asia

The overall objective of this joint program of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Eurasia Foundation was to improve access to justice for vulnerable populations, in particular rural women, at-risk children, and people with disabilities. Among the key activities were improvement of law school curricula and professional training of practicing lawyers providing legal services for vulnerable populations. The Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University contributed to the realization of these activities, for example, by organizing a tailor-made course for staff members from the law faculties in the universities of Central Asia, by assisting the faculty members in their micro-projects, and by sending experts to attend regional conferences in Central Asia. As part of the project, a link collection of relevant human rights web resources in Russian was produced. Dr Mariya Riekkinen (Åbo Akademi University) also prepared a study on the relationship between requirements on birth and residence registration and the exercise of human rights from an international perspective, with the purpose of contributing to the discussion on the need to reform in Central Asia.