One night in July 2018 police officers drove up to
Shahboz Ahmadov’s house in the southern Yavan district of Tajikistan and instructed
the young man to accompany them to the local police station to help them solve
a crime. But when they arrived they reportedly took him to an office, closed
the door, accused him of injuring a person with a knife, kicked and beat him
and gave him electric shocks until he confessed. After holding Shahboz Ahmadov
in police detention for several days the victim of the stabbing told the
officers that Shaboz was not the perpetrator. The officers let him go but
warned him to keep silent about the torture. But Shahboz went for a forensic
medical examination and filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Initially, an investigation was opened and two of the alleged perpetrators were
charged. But the investigation was flawed and prosecutors closed the case. The
perpetrators have not been punished and Shahboz has not obtained justice for
his suffering.
Sadly, cases like Shahboz Ahmadov‘s are common in all
Central Asian states, although, unlike him, many innocent individuals are
charged and convicted based on confessions extracted under duress; and numerous
victims of torture and
their relatives do not lodge complaints for fear of reprisals by the
perpetrators and give up all hope of obtaining justice through the criminal
justice system. Often, only when a person dies as a result of torture do the
relatives speak out.
In 2018 Central Asian NGO coalitions against torture recorded
143 new cases involving allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment
in Kazakhstan, 377 in Kyrgyzstan and 44 in Tajikistan. Both in Uzbekistan and in Turkmenistan no
independent NGOs working on torture have been able to register and due to the
repressive nature of the regimes it has been impossible for activists to
compile reliable nationwide statistics.
Today is the United Nations (UN) International Day in
Support of Victims of Torture. And on this day we renew our call to Central
Asian governments to live up to the principles and the spirit of the UN Convention
against Torture. All five Central
Asian countries have now been parties to the Convention against Torture since
the late 1990s. Over two decades later, why are the brutal practices of torture
and ill-treatment still widespread?
For many years local and international human rights
groups have regularly drawn attention to torture and much has been achieved.
Civil society groups have supported hundreds of victims in their struggle for
justice, formulated policy recommendations, tried to engage in dialogue with
domestic policy makers and advocated for change in international human rights
fora. It is largely thanks to these efforts that several dozen victims have
attained justice and the perpetrators have been punished; and that there have
been precedents in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan when victims of
torture or families of deceased victims have received some compensation for
moral damages. Central Asian NGOs have also provided much needed rehabilitation
services for victims of torture and their relatives, particularly in
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Important progress has been achieved in strengthening
legislation against torture in all five countries, but all too often legal
safeguards are not implemented and officials who fail to adhere to them are not
held to account. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have made some progress by allowing
public oversight over detention facilities and setting up National Preventative
Mechanisms (NPMs), although problems remain such as insufficient financial
resources of the NPM in both countries. Tajikistan has allowed limited
monitoring of detention facilities through the Ombudsman’s Office. In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
significant efforts have been made to integrate the standards of the Istanbul
protocol into the work of medical doctors examining victims of torture.
But in order to put a definitive end to torture and
ill-treatment the authorities have to publicly acknowledge the true extent of
the problem, publish comprehensive statistics on cases and investigations,
allow independent monitors full access to detention facilities, and address entrenched
systemic problems. The judiciary in all five countries is not independent and
both in law and practice, the defendant’s position is notoriously weak compared
to that of the prosecution. Law enforcement and prison officials often prevent
lawyers from visting their clients and speaking with them in confidence.
Victims, lawyers and human rights defenders risk reprisals by law enforcement
agencies when raising allegations of torture and are left vulnerable, with no
functioning mechanisms of protection. Not
one of the countries has put independent mechanisms in place to investigate
allegations of torture; conflicts of interest prevent investigations being
effectively carried out, cause major delays and lead to cases being closed,
often in spite of glaring evidence of abuse. Medical doctors who examine
victims of torture frequently come under pressure by law enforcement agencies
for recording injuries inflicted through torture and other evidence, and not
one of the Central Asian countries accepts or gives due consideration to the conclusions of independent forensic
medical or psychiatric experts in court. Police officers lack the skills to
professionally investigate crimes and typically get away with extracting confessions
and fabricating evidence under duress. Successfully combating torture also
requires tackling corruption in the criminal justice system as officials frequently
exploit the vulnerability of suspects and detainees for their personal gain.
For further information on concerns, recommendations and
individual cases of victims of torture, please refer to the following
documents:
Kyrgyzstan: Protection of fundamental rights in Kyrgyzstan. Briefing paper ahead of EU-Kyrgyzstan human rights dialogue, May 2019;
Tajikistan: Joint NGO submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee ahead of the consideration of Tajikistan’s Third Periodic Report at the 126th session in July 2019, NGO Coalition against Torture and Impunity in Tajikistan, International Partnership for Human Rights, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, June 2019;
Turkmenistan: Submission for the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Tajikistan, Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, International Partnership for Human Rights, October 2017;
Uzbekistan: Committee against Torture. Written information prior to the 66th session - adoption of the List of Issues, Association for Human Rights in Central Asia and International Partnership for Human Rights, January 2019.
