29 October 2015. In the next few days, US Secretary of State
John Kerry will visit the five Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Our organizations -- Kazakhstan
International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Nota Bene, Turkmen
Initiative for Human Rights, the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia
and International Partnership for Human Rights -- urge him to use his visit to
prominently raise human rights concerns with the Central Asian governments and
to speak up in support of the region’s hard-pressed civil society.
During
his visit, Kerry will hold bilateral and multilateral talks with senior
government officials from the Central Asian countries, including at a meeting
with the foreign ministers of all five countries in the city of Samarkand in
Uzbekistan.
Kerry’s visit comes
at a time when civil society in Central Asia is under more pressure than ever.
In the context of political developments in the wider region and the current
economic downturn, the Central Asian authorities have exploited concerns about
national security and stability to step up rhetoric and tighten measures
against civil society actors who criticize government policies and advocate for
human rights, justice and rule of law.
It is imperative that
the Secretary of State uses his visit to condemn this alarming trend and to
express strong support for civil society groups and activists at risk in the
region.
These are some key
concerns that we urge Kerry to raise with his Central Asian counterparts:
While existing legislation sets out strict
requirements regarding the operation and funding of NGOs in the Central Asian
countries, new restrictive provisions on the funding of NGOs have recently been
initiated in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Draft legislation currently pending in Kazakhstan’s Senate
may result in that a non-independent body is granted monopoly over the allocation of grants to NGOs,
including grants from foreign donors. A Russia-inspired “foreign agents” bill
that passed the first reading in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament this summer could be used to stigmatize
and obstruct the work of basically any foreign-funded NGO. There are also
concerns that new legislation adopted in Tajikistan in August 2015, which requires NGOs to
report all funds received from foreign sources to
the government prior to using them, may be used to restrict NGOs’ access to
funding in violation of international standards. NGOs have made active efforts
to influence and improve these legislative initiatives in the three countries,
but their suggestions have been largely disregarded.
Government regulations in force in Uzbekistan set out onerous
requirements with respect to obtaining and using foreign grants, which
effectively bar access to such funding for NGOs. According to Turkmenistani
legislation, foreign grants received by NGOs must be registered with the
government and are subject to close scrutiny.
In
the current climate, Central Asian NGOs and their leaders have increasingly
been singled out for negative and discrediting statements by government
representatives, public figures and public media who have accused them of
promoting ”foreign” interests and values and of undermining national security,
stability and reputation.
NGOs
that work on “sensitive” issues such as human rights have also been denied
registration and closed down on various pretexts in the region. Several human rights NGOs are currently at the
threat of closure in Tajikistan because of the alleged failure to comply with
administrative and technical requirements. If
adopted, the new NGO legislation under consideration in Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan could lead to closures of human rights NGOs in these countries. In
Uzbekistan, it is practically impossible for
independent human rights NGOs to obtain mandatory registration, as a result of
which such groups are forced to work without legal status. Independent Turkmenistani human rights groups can only operate
underground or in exile. Numerous NGO activists from these two countries have
had to flee abroad because of the repressive climate, and there are reasons to
fear that this may be a growing trend across the region.
In the recent period,
new cases of intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders, civic
activists, lawyers and other outspoken individuals have been reported in all
the Central Asian countries. Cases where such individuals have been arrested,
charged and imprisoned in retaliation for exercising their rights to freedom of
expression, association and assembly and other fundamental rights are of
particular concern. Recent worrying examples include the arrest of civil society activists Ermek Narymbaev and Serikzhan Mambetalin in Kazakhstan in
October 2015, the arrest of lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov in Tajikistan in September
2015, and the reported three-year prison sentence handed down to Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Saparmamed Nepeskuliev in Turkmenistan in August 2015.
Some human rights defenders and dissidents imprisoned after unfair
trials in the region have been behind bars for years already. There are serious
concerns about the health and well-being of these
individuals, including among others Azimjan Askarov, who continues to serve a life sentence in
in Kyrgyzstan, and Azam Farmonov, who in
April this year was given an additional five-year sentence in Uzbekistan instead
of being released after serving out a 9-year sentence.
More information
about current concerns regarding the situation of civil society in Central Asia
is detailed in a briefing paper, which was issued by our organizations on
22 October 2015.
According to a press statementissued by the US Department of State, US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit
Central Asia after attending Syria talks in Vienna on 29-30 October 2015. He
will travel to Bishkek, Samarkand, Astana, Dushanbe and Ashgabat on his tour to
the region, which is scheduled to end on 3 November 2015.
