A Council to protect youth and students’ rights has been established under the Ombudsman Institution in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the leader of the Liberal Youth Club Urmat Kazabaev, 18 members have been included in the council: students of universities and leaders of youth NGOs.
These members are here to elaborate measures to protect the rights and freedoms of youth, conduct a public examination of the bills and drafts that touch upon the rights of students. Furthermore, young people are intended to strongly cooperate with the state run public authorities, local governments and international organizations. « In order to make our citizens aware about our activities, we expect to publish informational booklets and brochures, conduct conferences, ad hearings with involvement of different level officials”, noted Urmat Kazakbaev.

In line with the decision made by the Council, the preparation of the project implementation within number of city universities towards introduction of the Ombudsman’s representative person into universities shall start within summer 2008.

The initiative of young people has been approved by Tursunbek Akun. “Training of new generation of competent specialist to protect rights is our priority task. Unfortunately, I have to note that many students do not know their rights or can not secure them. Their academic rights are often violated, a contract terms and conditions are getting worse, and teachers fail to pass students to examinations while waiting for a bribe. Dormitories have alien residents, and the students are forced to rent apartments. There are a number of problems in this area, and who besides the young people themselves can give publicity to and try to tackle their problems? – said the senior human rights advocate in the country.

The time period of Council members in act is one year. The sessions are expected to be monthly. The Youth Council may be abolished by its members themselves or the Ombudsman.