DUSHANBE, July 14, 2009, Asia-Plus — The first European Union (EU)-Tajikistan Civil Society Seminar on Human Rights that was held in Dushanbe on July 10-11 concluded its proceedings with the list of recommendations for the government, according to the Delegation of the European Commission in Tajikistan.
Organized by the European Commission with the close partnership of the Government of Tajikistan, the seminar devoted to the topic of “The Right to a Fair Trial and Independence of Judiciary.” It complemented the official Human Rights Dialogue between the European Union and the Republic of Tajikistan, which held its first meeting in October 2008. The next dialogue will take place in September 2009.
The seminar brought together judges, lawyers, academics and NGO representatives from Tajikistan and from 12 European states as well as the representatives of the authorities of the Republic of Tajikistan, the European Union and other international organizations, such as the OSCE and UN OHCHR.
The seminar participants discussed such important problems as the independence of judges and defense attorneys, equality of arms during criminal proceedings, fair trial guarantees during trial, post-trial rights, conditions of detention and public monitoring of places of detention and the right of individual complaints to the Constitutional Court of Tajikistan.
The list of recommendations was agreed and the report from the proceedings of the seminar will soon be finalized. It is expected that the recommendations of the seminar will be duly taken into account during the ongoing reforms, including the reform of legal profession and the elaboration of the new Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Tajikistan. The recommendations will be sent to the Government of Tajikistan and be followed up during the next Tajikistan-EU Human Rights Dialogue to be held in Dushanbe in September.
The new EU Strategy for Central Asia aims to strengthen ties between the European Union and its Central Asian partners. It has doubled European Commission assistance to the region to €750 million for 2007-2013. Tajikistan gets the main share of bilateral assistance (€66 million for 2007-2010) in support to sector programs, technical assistance and grants. It focuses on social protection, health and private sector development, underpinned by public finance management. Projects aimed at enhancing living standards continue. Tajikistan also receives regional and thematic assistance in areas like border management and drug control (BOMCA/CADAP), education (TEMPUS, Erasmus Mundus), water / environment, migration, human rights and democracy (EIDHR), non-State actors (NSA) and SME development (CA-Invest). The total value of EC assistance disbursed to Tajikistan since 1992 is over €500 million.
