At a meeting of the committee on constitutional legislation, Deputy Minister of Justice Orozbek Sydykov stated that the aim of the bill is to increase the number of lawyers providing citizens with state-guaranteed legal assistance.
According to him, as of the beginning of 2025, there are 3,591 lawyers registered in the state registry, of which only 464 are included in the registry of lawyers providing state-guaranteed legal assistance.
Sydykov also noted that in some localities there are no lawyers at all, particularly in Karakol in the Jalal-Abad region and in the Jumgal and Ak-Tal districts of the Naryn region. In 26 localities across the country, there is only one or two lawyers serving the entire area.
To address this issue, the bill proposes to introduce two types of licenses for legal practice, which will be divided by territorial principle:
- a universal license, valid throughout the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic;
- a localized license, intended for lawyers working within the system of state-guaranteed legal assistance and valid in a specific territory.
“We actively encourage lawyers to join the registry of state-guaranteed legal assistance to increase their numbers. However, the decision remains with them. For example, in the USA, there is one lawyer for every 300 people, while we have one lawyer for every 21,000 citizens, and in some areas, there are no lawyers at all. This bill aims to make qualified legal assistance more accessible,” added Orozbek Sydykov.
The bill also states that “to obtain a localized license, one must work in the system of state-guaranteed legal assistance for at least three years.”
