OSCE supports better conflict management in Kyrgyzstan’s prisons

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek supported the organization of two training courses on conflict prevention and conflict resolution for prison staff. The first course took place on 5-7 September in Osh for 15 participants from the southern region, followed by a similar event on 9-14 September in Bishkek for 15 participants from the north. 

The courses were delivered by an international expert and covered  psychological work with inmates, the characteristics of detention conditions, the particular needs of detainees in isolation, conflict management and conflict prevention methods, working with special categories of inmates such as youth, women, lifers and inmates with psychological disorders, and mobbing.

Andrew Tesoriere, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, said: “Prisons should and need not become hotbeds of conflict, illegality and instability. As part of its wider conflict-mitigation approach, the OSCE Centre continues to foster a lawful and respectful relationship between prison personnel and inmates as well as dignified conditions in detention. These two rounds of training underpin these goals.”

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek has been providing support to ongoing penitentiary reform in Kyrgyzstan, including through various training programmes for prison staff.