DUSHANBE, October 23, 2015, Asia-Plus — Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to use his trip to Central Asia to “raise concerns about the alarming state of human rights throughout the region.”
HRW, in particular, notes that releasing people wrongfully behind bars, allowing human rights groups and journalists to do their work unhindered, and ending impunity for torture should be on the to-do list for all Central Asian leaders.
In a letter and briefing memorandum released on October 21, Human Rights Watch highlighted key areas of concern for him to raise with government officials in each country. They include politically motivated prosecutions and imprisonment of human rights and civic activists; renewed efforts to clamp down on the activities of nongovernmental groups and on freedom of the media, assembly, and association; and impunity for torture.
HRW says Tajikistan’s human rights record continues to deteriorate amid an ongoing crack down on freedom of expression and political opposition and pressure on the independent media. Authorities’ use of torture to obtain confessions remains a serious concern. In 2014, the government blocked various websites, considered introducing a new law that would require NGOs to register all sources of funding from foreign sources, subjected human rights groups to harassment, restricted media freedoms, and continued to enforce serious restrictions on religious practice, as it had in previous years. Domestic violence against women also continues to be a serious problem.
