Governments and intergovernmental organizations should denounce the worsening human rights crisis in Tajikistan, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee said in a video released yesterday during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The United States and the European Union and its member countries, as well as the United Nations and the OSCE, should press for targeted sanctions absent immediate reform, the organizations said.
The organization note that Tajikistan is in the midst of its most dire human rights crisis in 20 years. Over the past two years, authorities have arrested, imprisoned, and tortured opposition party members and banned as terrorist the country’s leading opposition party. The authorities have also arrested scores of lawyers, journalists, and anyone posting statements critical of the government on social media. While hundreds of activists have fled the country, the government has targeted perceived critics abroad, seeking their arrest and extradition to Tajikistan. Some critics abducted abroad have reportedly reappeared in Tajik custody.
The US and EU should set a timeline for the Tajik government to undertake concrete human rights improvements, and make clear the specific policy consequences that will follow if it does not, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee said. These should include targeted, restrictive measures such as visa bans and asset freezes against government officials and entities responsible for grave human rights violations, including torture, and arbitrary arrests.
The OSCE and UN Human Rights Council members should also show their concern about Tajikistan’s human rights crisis, the organizations noted.
