OSCE Minorities Commissioner to visit Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, Ambassador Vollebaek will talk with policy makers and minority communities in Bishkek and Osh about the constitutional and electoral reform and the effect of these initiatives on inter-ethnic relations in the country. He will welcome the intention of the authorities to increase minority representation in the national legislature by prescribing the use of ethnically mixed candidate lists. The switch to a proportional representation system may, in his view, be a way of dealing with the gerrymandering that has hindered minority representation in the past and may assist effective participation of national minorities in the public life of Kyrgyzstan. In his meetings with the Kyrgyz Government, the High Commissioner will also reviewed the impact of his existing projects in the field of education, policing and State language training for civil servants and examin ways in which these initiatives can be augmented.