Day of Local Communities of the Kyrgyz Republic (30/10)

Local Communities Day of the Kyrgyz Republic is celebrated on the last Sunday of October.

This day was established by Decree of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic № 107 of March 6, 2003 in accordance with Decree of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic «On the provision of state support to local governments at the primary level» dated January 15, 2003.

Officially, the reform of local self-government began with the adoption on April 19, 1991 by the Supreme Council of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan of the Law «On Local Self-Government in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan», which established norms and rules for organizing local government that are fundamentally different from the practice of centralized management.

The first steps towards decentralization of power were taken with the adoption on May 5, 1993 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, in which self-government was constitutionally enshrined. As a result, in the basic law, local government was assigned a separate chapter — Chapter VII « Local government».

Thus, Kyrgyzstan followed the recommendation of the European Charter on Local Self-Government, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1985. According to Article 2 of the Charter: «The principle of local self-government must be recognized in the legislation of the country and, if possible, in the Constitution of the country».

In October 1996, at the II meeting of heads of local self-government of the Republic, the first Association of Local Self-Government Bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia was formed, which, having gone through a number of changes over the past years, is currently represented by the Union of Local Self-Government of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Union, representing and protecting the interests of all Ayil Okmotu and city halls, continues to make its contribution to the development and strengthening of local self-government.

The history of the development of local self-government in Kyrgyzstan speaks of the difficult path that the country has traveled in a short period of time in the direction of implementing the principles of local democracy, introducing openness and transparency of the actions of local authorities and, ultimately, increasing the efficiency of territorial management.

Despite a number of objective difficulties, it was possible to form a bright, original national model of local self-government, which organically fits into the socio-political landscape of Kyrgyzstan and is based on the long national self-government traditions of the people.

1078