Cholpon Idinovna Djakupova is a former Member of Parliament in Kyrgyzstan and is one of the leading advocates for refugee and detainee’s rights in the country. She serves as the director of the Public Foundation “Legal Clinic “Adilet,” which has supported vulnerable communities by providing legal, educational, and policy assistance since 2002. Adilet is the only legal clinic in all of Central Asia that provides such a diverse range of services for its clients who include sexual workers, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Ms. Djakupova has also held several government positions over the past two decades. From 1995-1999, she served as the appointed director of the Department on Migration at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and afterwards, as the Deputy Director of Central Asia Regional Center of Migration until 2002. Ms. Djakupova also served as a member of Kyrgyz Republic’s parliament (Jokorku Kenesh) from 2015 to 2017.

On the international arena, Ms. Djakupova has been a prominent voice for the Kyrgyzstan’s civil society. She participated in preparing alternative National Report of the Kyrgyz Republic, submitted for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) under the United National Council on Human Rights from the civil society.

In 2008, she was awarded a U.S. Department International Women of Courage Award for active participation in the humanitarian evacuation of Uzbek refugees in 2006 and “Pride of Kyrgyzstan” awarded by the Bishkek Press Club for achievements in promoting the concepts of Human Rights.