The concept of community-based policing has become widely known and appreciated among all major sections of the society of Kyrgyzstan despite being a relatively new concept in the country. In fact, there has been a shift from a purely traditional policing philosophy towards an approach that accounts for the community’s concerns and widely applies crime prevention efforts. This practice will eventually contribute to bridging police and community as well as to alleviating mistrust towards police from the side of the public. Certain efforts were undertaken by the PRP in order to promote the leading principles/postulates of a comprehensive reform at different levels of Kyrgyzstan’s criminal justice sector. It has to be stressed though that the Government and the MoI were lacking a clear-cut strategy to reform the police system over the past years. The common climate for the Programme implementation over the reporting period was not in favour of sweeping changes in the area of policing. A lack of political will from the Government’s side and the Ministry’s resistance to identify a strategic reform process resulted in a slow process of positive moves in promoting and further setting up mechanisms and institutions such as transparency, accountability, civil oversight, etc. However, this may have been the result of the authorities’ engagement in the 2010 electoral process or in some activities that were aimed to restore public order in the south. In times of critical tensions the police were concerned about how to resume proper functioning of their forces to prevent any further conflict escalation. Despite these developments, the PRP persistently and rigidly attempted to promote a governance strategy/task (goals-oriented) programme. In 2011, the OSCE continued to provide assistance and advice in this challenging process in which the success of the police reform will depend primarily on three critical factors: sustainable guarantees/commitment from the Kyrgyz authorities, involvement of the civil society, and assistance from the international community. As Kyrgyzstan has been entering a new phase of political pluralism and legitimate government where political developments have been providing opportunities to enhance citizen participation in the protection and promotion of human rights, it has become very important to make a positive use of it. The efforts of the PRP to strengthen co-operation between society and the police started to show success. This was demonstrated by wide participation of civil society organizations during the discussions of the police reform concept and their active involvement in the concept development, as well as the work of the Public Supervisory Council of the MoI and numerous joint projects between the police and NGOs. Nonetheless, small successes achieved required further efforts in assistance for building cooperation between the public and the police. For this reason, the PRP will continue to focus on increasing police accountability as a basis to establish democratic policing principles. Development of a Legal Policing Framework During the reporting period the PRP facilitated a visit of international experts/consultants on policing and law enforcement issues to Kyrgyzstan. The group was comprised of experts from Hungary, Sweden and Estonia. The purpose of the mission was to prepare a platform for discussing the scope and parameters of further police reform in the country. This experts’ visit was conducted in close co-operation and consultation with the SPMU which was also represented by its Deputy Head. In the framework of this visit, the experts held a series of meetings with the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (KR), including the Vice-Prime Minister. Meetings were also held with Members of Parliament. The experts also met NGOs and the CiB management. On 18 March, the experts made a presentation of their findings for members of the Working Group 101