A chatbot of the Оmbudsman institution will become available in Telegram

January 15, 2021

Citizens of Kyrgyzstan will receive legal aid via a chatbot soon.

This coming February, the Ombudsman Institution of the Kyrgyz Republic will launch a chatbot in the Telegram messenger. It will allow the country’s citizens to receive information on the most frequently asked questions. It will also enable the staff of the Ombudsman Institution to receive and handle queries more timely and provide legal assistance to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms secured by the Kyrgyz Constitution and international instruments to which the Kyrgyz Republic is a signatory.

Based on the questions received, the interactive chatbot will generate relevant information in the Kyrgyz and Russian languages and provide more opportunities for people to contact the Ombudsman Institution, which is even more relevant during the pandemic. The chatbot will also be available for queries on the Ombudsman Institution website for citizens’ convenience. Currently, the experts are developing and testing the content of the system. Employees of the Ombudsman Institution will have direct access to the chatbot and conduct further updates or support cases. At the initial stage, consultations of the chatbot will include answers to 142 questions divided into 9 categories. A dedicated group of representatives of the Ombudsman Institution, the Center for Coordination of State-provided Legal Aid under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic, the State Registration Service, the Public Agency for Local Self-government and Interethnic Relations, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, and the Association of Legal Clinics of Kyrgyzstan have developed these questions.

In the future, the Ombudsman Institution will perform regular updates of the chatbot answers following the statistics of frequently asked questions, as well as accept applications from citizens that come in and fall under the mandate of the Institution.

The chatbot operates artificial intelligence. Thus, in the absence of a corresponding answer in its database, it saves and forwards the question to the lawyers of the Ombudsman Institution. The lawyers will subsequently contact the concerned user to provide them the legal advice. According to the experts, the chatbot will not be able to completely replace the work of the lawyers. However, it will reduce the daily workload of employees, as they will not deal with the most frequently asked questions. Hence, they will better respond to questions that require focused consultations, which will dramatically improve access to justice for people. Furthermore, citizens with basic queries will not have to wait to receive answers any longer.

The Deputy Ombudsman, Mr. E. Alimbaev, believes that the implementation of the chatbot would improve the interaction between the Ombudsman Institution and citizens.

“Currently, our employees work only at the regional level, and residents of remote regions are left behind to receive legal advice in a timely manner. Now, thanks to the Telegram chatbot, any resident of the country no matter where they reside, can receive legal information, find answers to their questions and, if necessary, contact us directly for further legal support to exercise their rights. In addition, UNDP has provided support to improve the technical capacity of the call center 115 of the Ombudsman Institution, which is another way to contact the Office,” he said.

Furthermore, the use of the chatbot will expand the methods of providing free legal aid to the low-income and limited-mobility citizens or the families raising children with special needs. These people will now receive qualified legal assistance, free of charge, while at home. It is specifically important during the crisis caused by COVID-19, as they require even more support. The chatbot development became possible with the financial support that the Government of Japan rendered to the UNDP project titled "Supporting an Inclusive and Multi-sectoral Response to COVID-19 and Addressing its Socio-economic Impact in the Kyrgyz Republic".