4.13 Centre in Bishkek Background The OSCE Centre in Bishkek (CiB) was established in 1998 to promote the implementation of OSCE commitments, facilitate the exchange of information, establish and maintain contacts with local authorities, universities, research institutions and NGOs and encourage further integration of the Kyrgyz Republic (KR) into the OSCE community. Implementation of the Police Assistance Programme started in 2003. The Interim Police Assistance Programme, established in 2005, aimed to prepare the ground for continued progress towards deep structural reform of Kyrgyzstan’s police system and to strengthen the institutional and implementation capacities of certain police units. Since 2007, the Police Reform Programme (PRP) has become an integrated part of the Unified Budget (UB) of the CiB. Funding from the UB has therefore increased the long-term effectiveness of the Programme. In 2014, the PRP underwent a partial restructuring and rebranding to become the Police Matters Programme (PMP). The restructuring reflects a move away from narrowly addressing police reform to a more comprehensive approach of addressing law enforcement support and reform, a key priority for the OSCE and the host country. The PMP is committed to comprehensive reform at all levels of Kyrgyzstan’s law enforcement bodies and is primarily focused in the Ministry of Interior (MoI). The MoI had previously lacked action plans for implementing any of the strategies to reform the law enforcement bodies over the previous ten years. Successive governments failed to fully support changes within the MoI. This lack of political will of the host country authorities and the MoI’s resistance to reform resulted in a lack of transparency and accountability and in diminished trust of police. In-country safety and security in 2014 remained a challenging environment with various issues of a political, economic and border security nature that could affect public peace and order. With these unfavourable circumstances in the background, the CiB continued to support the platform for co-operation of all relevant stakeholders, including the MoI, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Parliament, civil society and international organizations. As a result of the CiB advisory support, implementation of the police reform roadmap has been ensured, as well as regular meetings of the Government-led body to control the implementation of the police reform process. These are important prerequisites for securing the sustainability of the police reform process. Police Reform The PMP designed a project to support the Government, Ministry of Interior society in the implementation of national police reform commitments Government in late 2013. The commitments, reflected and secured in the Decree on the Police Reform Measures and detailed Action Plan, are aimed an effective system of law enforcement and public safety, trusted by society. (MoI) and civil taken by the Governmental at establishing A Police Reform Steering Council (established by the authorities to co-ordinate and monitor the police reform process from within the Parliament, Government and civil society) gathered four times throughout 2014. The Centre continued to support passage of the new police performance evaluation system and the draft law on co-operation of police and civil society during the 2014. With the support of the CiB, these two new police-related regulations were debated at public hearings. Working groups consisted of representatives of the MoI, the CiB 139