1. INTRODUCTION The Kyrgyz Republic ratified many human rights treaties establishing a prohibition on torture and ill treatment. All these international treaties form integral part of Kyrgyzstan’s legal system and are directly applicable at the national level. Furthermore, norms spelled out in international human rights treaties take precedence over other international agreements9. The prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment is enshrined in the Constitution, laws and other regulatory and legal acts of the Kyrgyz Republic, including those establishing the procedure and conditions of custody for arrested persons suspected of, and charged with, committing offences, subject to administrative arrest, and procedure and conditions of staying in specialized educational, health care and social care institutions. However, despite a fairly strong legal base, it is not always possible to ensure compliance with antitorture norms and apply preventive mechanisms successfully. Torture is still an open issue in Kyrgyzstan. As stated by Prof. Juan Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, upon completion of his visit to the Kyrgyz Republic in December 2011, torture and cruel treatment are widespread phenomena in Kyrgyzstan. The UN Special Rapporteur confirmed the conclusions drawn as a result of the full-scale research conducted in 2011 under the aegis of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic, the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, and eight non-governmental organizations that shared their wealth of experience in the field of torture prevention. Activities within the MoU included country-wide monitoring of all Temporary Detention Facilities (TDFs) under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) of the Kyrgyz Republic. TDFs under MoI were selected for monitoring purposes because these places of detention are by definition closed to the outside world. Individuals placed in these institutions are particularly vulnerable and susceptible to the threat of torture and other types of ill treatment. Secondly, the monitoring results reveal that those in detention are subject to illegal inquiry methods by police officers with the aim of extracting confessions, after which they are placed in TDFs. There have been quite a few cases when torture was used in TDFs. Therefore, opening TDFs to external control mechanisms by means of regular monitoring was considered as one of the most effective mechanisms for preventing violations and improving detention conditions. This unique format of co-operation between the country’s chief human rights defender and international and local human rights organizations, as well as the methods of their work which allow to achieve objective results and develop conclusions as well as practical and useful recommendations on their basis, sparked a high degree of interest among government institutions whose activities are also aimed at ensuring the respect for the right to freedom from torture. In June 2012, an expanded new version of the Memorandum of Understanding was signed including new parties such as the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG), the Ministry of Interior (MoI), the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the State Service for the Execution of Punishments (SSEP), and four additional non-governmental organizations. The MoU brought together all those who are convinced that it is possible to improve the protection of persons deprived of their liberty from torture based on non-judicial preventive measures such as regular and unannounced monitoring visits to places of detention. This confidence is due to the following: 9 Para. 3 Article 6 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic. 6