INIS - Women's Legal Assistance Center 
                                       
Press Release
Tajik women will have one more opportunity to get legal aid

Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS began working in Dushanbe and Khudjand on July 1, 2005.

Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS is a non-profit, non-governmental association founded in June 2005 with the help of the American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) and financed by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

The aim of the Center is to provide women (including women - victims of violence) with legal advice, counselling, mediation, representation in court and government institutions.

Lawyers and legal advocates providing service through Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS carry out activities as follows:
-holding personal and telephone legal consultations;
-answering written requests;
-filing complaints, petitions and applications;
-representing women's interests in court and government institutions;
-organizing educational seminars.

More than 60 people have sought help from Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS in Dushanbe and in Sogdian district. There have been filed 20 complaints and 25 applications and petitions.

Eleven cases are under hearing now.

There are several addresses and phone numbers for women seeking legal aid from Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS:

In Dushanbe:
 
Public Association "Bonuvoni Navovar",
6 Buston Street,
Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Telephone (for consultations): 25-54-87
Legal consultations are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Women's Consultation Center "Bovari",
14 Lakhuti Street,
Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Telephone (for consultations): 27-97-66.
Legal consultations are held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Any information about legal consultations provided by Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS is available at:

Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS,
39/23 Shotemur Street,
Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Telephone: 24-12-29, 21-15-02.

In Khudjand:

Khudjand Women's Center "Gulrukhsor",
43 Kamoli Khudjandi Street, apt. 11,
Khudjand, Tajikistan.
Telephone (for consultations): 6-54-92, 6-05-10.
Legal consultations: Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Women's Association "Somondukht",
23 Lenin Street, Spitamen region,
Sogdian district, Tajikistan.
Telephone (for consultations): 2-31-62.
Legal consultations are held on the first and the last Fridays of each month, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Any information about legal consultations provided by Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS is also available at:

Women's Legal Assistance Center INIS Khudjand Branch,
124 Kamoli Khudjandi Street, apt. 2,
Khudjand, Tajikistan.
Telephone: 6-10-25, 4-24-30.

Legal consultations are free and confidential.
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The American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) began working in Dushanbe in 1997. The ABA/CEELI Khudjand office was opened in October 2000. Now ABA/CEELI is carrying out the following legal education programs in Tajikistan: clinical legal education, moot court, mock trials, street law and the development of  advocacy courses for law schools. These programs are financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

The Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) - a public service project of the American Bar Association (ABA) - advances the rule of law by supporting the law reform process in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Through its volunteer legal liaison program as well as its training institute in Prague, CEELI makes available American and European legal expertise and technical assistance for these emerging democracies in modifying and restructuring laws and legal systems.

CEELI has offices in 23 countries across Central Europe and Eurasia. Since its founding in 1990, more than 5,000 judges, attorneys, law professors and legal specialists have contributed over $180 million in pro bono assistance to promoting the rule of law in the region.

The American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional association in the world. With more than 400,000 members, the ABA provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.