DUSHANBE, January 22, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Tajik authorities are suppressing freedom of expression and assembly in the country, a statement released by Amnesty International (AI) on Monday says.
According to the statement, the Tajik authorities have confirmed their decision to shut down the rights group despite objections of international community, including the EU’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.
Amnesty International calls on the Tajik authorities to allow Amparo continuing its activities without fear of interference and harassment in line with the country’s international obligations, the statement said.
The London-based human rights watchdog also calls on international community, in particular the European Union, to remind the Tajik authorities of their obligation to adhere to human rights values such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
We will recall that the appeals court of the Sughd regional court has upheld the Khujand city court’s verdict against the Amparo rights group on January 15.
Amparo representatives denounced the ruling and vowed to appeal to the appeals court of the Supreme Court. “We will go through all national instances and in the case of necessity we will appeal to international judicial bodies,” they noted.
The Khujand city court ruled to shut down the Amparo rights group on October 24, 2012, saying that the group was operating without a proper license.
The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit against Amparo on June 29, 2012, saying it failed to timely show its address change at the ministry.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the Tajik authorities for shutting down the Amparo rights group. Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, issued a statement on October 25 calling the decision politically motivated.
Amnesty International released a statement on November 23, reiterating its call for civil society activists not to be harassed or intimidated.
“Amnesty International believes that Amparo is being punished for trying to collect and publicize information about torture and other ill-treatment of young men of conscription age and their treatment in the military,” the November 23 statement said, noting that two other NGOs in Sughd province are facing closure over alleged administrative irregularities – Grazhdanskoye Obshchestvo (Civil Society) and Aktsent (Accent), both working on civic education and electoral rights.
Amparo, whose members include more than 40 rights activists, journalists, and educators, was founded in 2005 by a group of young lawyers who sought to empower youth with human rights education. Amparo actively investigates and monitors the rights of Tajik army recruits, the poor, orphans, and the disabled, among other vulnerable social groups.
For several years the group has been an active member of the Coalition against Torture, which brings together several leading Tajik civil society organizations that collect and report on torture allegations from across the country and jointly encourage the government to meet its international commitments to end the practice.
