DUSHANBE, June 19, Asia-Plus — On Tuesday June 16, Republican Bureau of Human Rights and the Rule of Law (BHRRL) presented its report entitled “Monitoring of Observance of Human Rights in the Event of Forced Evictions for State and Public Needs in Tajikistan.”
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Sergey Romanov of BHRRL said that the monitoring was conducted from February 15, 2007 to May 25, 2008.
Over the report period, the Bureau and its partners, including the OSCE Center in Dushanbe, have received 170,000 complaints from various regions of the country. “We have received complaints not only from residents of the center of Dushanbe, whose homes are demolished as part of a municipal plan but also from those, whose residential buildings are being destroyed because they were constructed official permission.”
According to him, they are currently engaged in settling cases of two residents of Dushanbe affected by such measures. “We intend to carry the case to completion and if we a re not satisfied with resolution of higher instance we will appeal to the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights,” Mr. Romanov said.
The BHRRL expert holds that Tajik legislation does not properly define the notion “state and public needs” and procedure of making decision on demolition of houses for the state and public needs and does not determine what government body makes such decisions.
He also noted that the presented report had been submitted for consideration to relevant government bodies, including parliament. “We consider it necessary to make changes and addenda to the country’s housing code,” Romanov said.
We will recall that on April 15, 2008, police officers arrested some 20 demonstrators in Dushanbe, The demonstration, in which roughly 40 mainly women and children participated, was organized to protest the imminent demolition of their homes in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district of Dushanbe, as part of a municipal plan to destroy dozens of old houses in the city in preparation for the construction of modern buildings. The plan affects hundreds of residents, many of whom are being evicted without compensation.
