4.12 Centre in Astana Background The Centre in Astana was established as the Centre in Almaty in 1998 before it was renamed in 2007. It promotes the implementation of OSCE principles and commitments, facilitates contacts and exchanges of information, and provides assistance to the Government of Kazakhstan. In 2013, the Centre continued active co-operation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MoIA) of Kazakhstan and other law enforcement agencies, and focused on efforts to familiarize the host country’s law enforcement agencies with best practices in democratic policing with a particular focus on countering VERLT, combating drug trafficking, public assembly management, and the fight against the criminal use of cyberspace. The Centre also engaged the MoIA and other law enforcement agencies in international and regional activities organized by the OSCE Chairmanship and the TNTD/SPMU. Participation in these events provided Kazakhstan’s representatives with valuable information and contacts both regionally and throughout the OSCE area. The education of police officers continued to be the focus of the Centre’s activities in 2013. Criminal Legislation The Centre kept supporting the host country’s efforts to bring legislation and lawenforcement practices in line with OSCE commitments and international standards. It assisted national stakeholders in organizing five high-level conferences and four expert meetings to discuss draft Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. The meetings involved representatives of the MoIA and other law-enforcement bodies. The Centre provided international expertise in a number of thematic sessions related, inter alia, to the criminal procedure’s simplification, judicial control, status of defence lawyers and juvenile justice. In November, the Centre arranged a visit of members of the parliamentary Criminal Procedure Code Working Group to Ukraine to study its experience in implementing a new Criminal Procedure Code. In December, the Centre, in co-operation with the parliamentary Committee for Legislative and Judicial Reform, a national NGO and Penal Reform International co-organized three expert meetings on criminal justice reform at the Parliament. The discussions focused on the “abolition of the initiation of criminal case” – a special stage in the criminal process that remained in the legislation from the past, as well as on the early or conditional release from detention and the judicial control in criminal proceedings. As the penitentiary system institutionally belongs to the MoIA in Kazakhstan, the Centre was engaged in a series of activities related to prison reform. In support of the humanization of the criminal-executive system and reform at both the legislative and practical level, the Centre supported a number of conferences, expert meetings and parliamentary committee hearings. The first International Penal Forum concerning the use of probation and electronic bracelets instead of prison sentences was aimed at sharing experience and plans for the expansion of the probation service in Kazakhstan and the introduction of electronic monitoring of offenders. In co-operation with the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Presidential Administration and Penal Reform International, the Centre facilitated the presentation and public discussion at a high level of the national concepts on reconciliation and extra-judicial dispute resolution and on the reduction of the prison population. 128