Printer-Friendly Page

Gainesville Sun (Gainesville, FL)
Posted on June 23, 2007

By   YUDISLAIDY FERNANDEZ

A delegation of lawyers from the Republic of Tajikistan visited Gainesville this week as part of Congress' Open World Program to experience American democracy and civil society in action.

Congress established the program in 1999 to enhance understanding and capabilities for cooperation between the United States and Russia, and later extended it to include republics of the former Soviet Union, Tajikistan being one of them.

"These countries have undergone major government and political system changes. They have gone from socialist systems to a democracy with a completely different legal system," said Steve Kalishman, organizer of the Open World Program in Gainesville. "We can give them some guidance because we have been developing our legal system for over 200 years."

This is the eighth Open World group hosted by Gainesville and the first to come from Tajikistan, a country of interest to the U.S. because it borders China and Afghanistan, he said.

The five attorneys hope their visit will enhance their professional skills to better serve their residents back home.

Qayum Yusufov, a Tajikistan public defense attorney who specializes in protection of legal rights, said he was interested in "comparing the legal system here with what we have in Tajikistan and borrowing all the positive things so we can implement them there."

Throughout the week, delegates have met with the state attorney, public defender, several judges, law enforcement officers and American colleagues to discuss items such as protection of human rights, criminal prosecution and how the U.S. legal system works.

"They (the lawyers) met with state law attorneys and judges to have an open discussion about how we do things and how it compares with what they do," organizer Kalishman said.

Tuesday's visit to Gainesville City Hall impressed Makhira Usmanova, chairwoman of the Northern Tajikistan Bar Association, who said she saw first-hand how the three branches of government work separately.

"In Tajikistan, the legal system is very centralized," she said.

Even though the constitution establishes three branches, the executive branch overpowers the others, so in theory they are supposed to be separate, but in reality they are not, Usmanova explained.

On Friday, the delegation concluded its trip with a tour of the Santa Fe Community College Institute of Public Safety, where the VIP guests got to fire handguns in the academy's firearms range and rode a skid-demonstration car on their driving range.

Louis Kalivoda, program adviser at the Institute of Public Safety, said the tour gave guests an opportunity to see what law enforcement is all about in the U.S. and also helps them build and foster better relationships with other countries.

[Reprinted with Permission]

All Press Articles