INLâ₏™s traditional focus has been on providing training to prosecutors through the Prosecutors Training Center on ethics and trial advocacy skills. It now sees the need to provide training to criminal defense lawyers on these same skills, but also to provide preparatory training to those who have yet to pass the bar, and to build a network amongst criminal defense lawyers country-wide. In looking at what INL can offer, it seeks to complement those efforts of USAID by proposing the objectives and activities below in the form of a grant, using INCLE funds with options for four extensions. The lack of access to timely and acute information is an obstacle to hindering the development of a professional defense counsel. Therefore there is a need to establish and provide a basis for a defense counsels community to increase and strengthen its capacity, legal professionalism and practical experience. All three objectives complement activities we already support and allow for better communication between Bishkek and the regions and meshes well with current INL-funded training for the prosecutors.