Renovated Legal Clinic under the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED), supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and study manual "Protection rights of individuals in civil courts" written by legal experts of the clinic, were presented in Tashkent on 11 June.

Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Uzbekistan Kyoko Postill, OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan Miroslav Jenca, Pro-rector of the UWED Murad Bakhodirov together with clinicians, faculty of International Law participated in the opening ceremony of new premises of Legal Clinic and in presentation of the main activities of the clinic.

The Legal Clinic is a public - legal, non-commercial, consulting organ under the UWED and its objective is to train young lawyers through providing legal aid to population. Comfortable premises for lawyers are essential and now the clinic provides all necessary conditions for work with clients. The clinic can also train more students.

The presentation demonstrated the interest of students in Legal Clinic, implementation of knowledge in to practice by providing pro bono consultations under direct supervision of experienced legal experts, demonstrated process of work with clients within Legal Clinic, shared achievements (during a year 2006-2007) and further plans.

Within the framework of the opening ceremony, new manual "Protection rights of individuals in civil courts", written by legal clinic legal experts Galina Mayorova and Irina Cherkashina, was also presented.

Manual includes samples of court procedural documents on family, labor, housing law issues and reveals methods of how they can be proven.

The project "Legal aid and legal literacy for better access to justice" aims to improve access to justice for people, who cannot afford or have limited access to legal services, such as women, children, the poor, the elderly and people with disabilities and to increase quality of legal services through training of law students.

Kyoko Postill said: "Legal clinic is aimed at promoting access to justice for the people, who cannot afford or have limited access to legal services, and preparing highly-qualified lawyers. We see that with efforts of administration of UWED and legal clinic staff was created good conditions that are close to professional standards practices in other developed countries."

The new premises of the Clinic, renovated with the support of UNDP will provide better opportunity to enhance the activity of the clinic and to assist more needy people with legal aid, she said.

Ms Postill added: "Nowadays the legal clinics education in Uzbekistan has become an effective mechanism for training qualified and specialized lawyers with both strong academic background and professional experience. UNDP in Uzbekistan has further plans to support Legal Clinic education in the country that will contribute to better access to justice and rule of law."