Geneva-Paris, July 1, 2019. As the UN Human Rights Committee prepares to scrutinize the human rights situation in Tajikistan, a new report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (an OMCT-FIDH partnership) highlights how the regime of President Rahmon gradually eroded the freedom of association and expression of its critics, including human rights defenders and lawyers.

The report titled Their last stand? How human rights defenders are being
squeezed out in Tajikistan, published today by the World Organisation Against
Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, within the
framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders,
outlines how the authorities have increasingly restricted the legal space for
human rights organisations and independent lawyers to provide assistance to
victims of human rights violations, including torture.
“We
fear that human rights defenders in Tajikistan are in the middle of the worst
oppression yet. So it beggars
belief when the international community fails to stand up for those brave women
and men. On a recent visit to Tajikistan EU Council President Donald Tusk
poured lavish praise on Rahmon but failed to speak out publicly on his human
rights record. This is unacceptable”, said Gerald Staberock, OMCT
Secretary General.
The
report finds that amendments to, among others, the Law on Public Associations -
allegedly introduced to combat money laundering, terrorism and financing of
terrorism - severely restricted the ability of human rights defenders and
others to set up and run civil society organisations without undue
interference. At the same time various official bodies were handed tremendous
powers to conduct frequent and intrusive inspections of NGOs.
Furthermore,
the authorities bear responsibility for causing an acute shortage of lawyers in
the country, with grave implications for the right of access to a lawyer of
one’s choice and other fundamental human rights. New legislation sets
unreasonably high admission criteria for the bar and mandates a body presided
by a Deputy Minister of Justice with testing and periodically re-testing all
lawyers, giving the executive authority additional grounds for exclusion of
lawyers from the bar on an arbitrary basis.
Finally,
journalists and lawyers have been criminally prosecuted for defending victims,
including the 28 years jail sentence for prominent human rights lawyer Buzurgmehr
Yorov.
“These
developments pose a fundamental threat to the existence of a free and
independent civil society and legal profession in Tajikistan”, concluded Dimitris
Christopoulos, FIDH President.
The report is available in English and in Russian
Context
The report is released ahead
of Tajikistan’s
review by the UN Human Rights Committee from July 1 to 3, 2019. The
Committee oversees State parties’ compliance with
their legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR).
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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by OMCT and FIDH. The objective
of this programme is to intervene to prevent or remedy situations of repression
against human rights defenders. OMCT and FIDH are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism
implemented by international civil society.
For
more information, please contact:
· OMCT: Iolanda Jaquemet / Roemer Lemaitre: + 41
79 539 41 06 / + 41 22 809 49 39
·
FIDH:
Eva Canan: + 33 6 48 05 91 57
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