Environmental Engineering Reference
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of elders received a temporary formal legal status thanks to a decree issued by the President
“On Approval of Temporary Regularization on Courts of Elders in the Kyrgyz Republic” in
1995. In 2002, the Law “On Elders' Courts” was approved by the Parliament. However, its
role and range of activity varies considerably in each village (Giovarelli, Akmatova 2002: 6f, 12,
17; Bichsel 2006: 111 119; Beyer 2006: 144f). Despite the fact that the local court of elders in
its current form is a new formal institution, its source of legitimacy is the authority of the eld
ers, hence it functions according to the logic of the informal institution of village aksakals . In
predominantly Uzbek villages in the south of the country, a similar function is performed by
the mahalla committee (see below in the section on Tajikistan).
Tajikistan
In 1994, the “Law on Local Self Government in Towns and Villages” was passed and subse
quently 356 jamoats (municipalities) were established. A jamoat consists of several FSK, which
generally consisted of several kishlaks (villages). The chairperson of the jamoat is appointed by
the head of the district administration ( khukumat ). On local level, there exist representative
assemblies ( majlis ) comprising 5 7 members. However, their actual power is negligible. The
chairperson of the khukumat is also the chairperson of the majlis . The local government is re
sponsible for the socio economic development and the implementation of laws and other
normative documents. Although jamoats are allotted some financial means by the raion councils,
they do not have their own budget in a true sense, they have little autonomy, and virtually no
power beside their consultative functions (Ilolov, Khodoiyev 2001: 614; IWPR 2007; Abdul
laev 2004:10; Freizer 2004: 18f). 93 Compared to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan is much more centra
lized. This is a consequence of the post civil war period when strong state control seemed
necessary in order to prevent local warlords from gaining too much power. In addition, decen
tralization was considered a possible threat to the still fragile statehood (IWPR 2007). Conse
quently, local government is considered to be more an agent of the central government and the
President than of the local population. While one reason is that its members are solely accoun
table to higher ranking officials, another reason is that the local population is rather passive
due to the fact that they have no tradition of political participation and thus lack experience
(Abdullaev 2004: 10f; Freizer 2004: 16). In the case study, the village Iskodar belongs to the
jamoat Dar dar. It has a council of five people from every village. They are not elected but
appointed by the village assembly and meet once in three months. Due to the lack of financial
resources, the jamoat was perceived as rather inactive by villagers and also by local key actors.
While the official local government structure lacks trust, accountability, and representa
tiveness, there are a number of informal institutions that “function more effectively as local
self government entities” (Freizer 2004: 16). The most important local (informal) organization
is the mahalla committee. Mahalla , most often translated as “neighborhood” or “local commu
nity”, refers to the residential network in villages as well as cities in the sedentary parts of Cen
tral Asia, ranging back beyond the 13 th century. The mahalla is organized according to the se
dentary principle, and not based on kinship and involves a net of reciprocal relations and obli
gations. The mahalla is governed by a mahalla committee, consisting of local elders and other
respected members of the community. It is the lowest level of local self organization. It is led
by an elder ( aksakal ). It organizes collective religious and social events (like births, weddings
and funerals), solves conflicts, provides social services, and helps the poorest members of
93 In 2006, the government adopted a reform program and drafted a local administration law in order to enhance the
powers of the local administration. However, it did not address the financial decentralization, which is considered to
be the most crucial element by many experts (IWPR 2007).
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