The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has expressed its dismay at Kyrgyzstan’s decision to abolish its National Centre for the Prevention of Torture (NCPT) without public consultation.

The Kyrgyz Government had initially outlined plans to transfer the functions of the NCPT to the Kyrgyz Institute of the Ombudsman in June 2022.

It has now made the decision to do so under the new Constitutional Law ‘On Akyikatchy of the Kyrgyz Republic.’

Despite assurances that the Kyrgyz Parliament would engage in consultation with the SPT, the legislature proceeded to adopt the law through a combined second and third reading on 25th June 2025 without consultation.

‘The NCPT is a well established Kyrgyz national prevention mechanism (NPM), created over a decade ago in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), following four years of extensive and inclusive national consultations with the executive, administrative, and legislative branches as well as other stakeholders in the Kyrgyz Republic,’ said Maria Luísa Romero, the SPT Chairperson.

‘Dismantling the independent torture prevention institution and transferring the NPM mandate to the Ombuds Institution, which still falls short of meeting the Paris Principles, and doing so without clear provision for how the Ombuds Institution will carry out this mandate, is a serious setback,’ Romero added.

She stated that ‘most concerningly, this is now happening through a completely opaque process with no public consultation’ and ‘not even the text of the amendments made publicly available.’

The NCPT was established through national legislation to implement the obligations the Kyrgyz Republic undertook when it became a State Party to the OPCAT in 2008.

‘The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited the Kyrgyz Republic in March 2025 and emphasised that “the National Centre for the Prevention of Torture is a model for the Central Asia region, as the only independent national human rights institution that meets international standards,”’ Romero stated.

‘We urge all authorities to halt this course of action and to engage with the SPT on constructive ways to support and strengthen the NCPT’s work for the benefit of all people in Kyrgyzstan,’ she said.