25 February 2009
Serious Rights Abuses Continue in Central Asian Republics
Politically motivated arrests, controls on news media and Internet common
Washington — Despite some improvements, the overall state of human rights in the former Soviet Central Asian republics remains a cause of concern, according to the U.S. Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2008, issued February 25.
The documents, totaling some 5,000 pages, are prepared by the Department of State under a U.S. congressional mandate and report on the conditions in 190 countries of internationally recognized individual, civil, political and worker rights as set forth in the United nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which this year marks 60 years of existence. (See “Human Rights Report Sees Worldwide Demand for Greater Freedom.”)
In the Central Asia region, the country-by-country reports cite modest improvements, such as new amendments to the laws governing political parties, media and elections in Kazakhstan. But attacks that color the tone of human rights observance in Central Asia persist on basic rights, including freedom of association, expression and religion.
CONSTRAINTS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, PRESS FREEDOM, RELIGION
In Turkmenistan, the government continued to commit serious abuses and to severely restrict political and civil liberties. In June 2008, authorities arrested former activist and former political prisoner Gulgedy Annaniyazov after he allegedly re-entered the country illegally. He was sentenced in a closed trial to 11 years in prison. Parliamentary elections in December 2008 fell short of international standards, according to the report. It cites, however, the government’s effort to revise laws, including its constitution, to bring them more in conformity with international conventions.
In Uzbekistan, the government has begun to take steps to address human rights concerns, such as defendants’ rights, trafficking in persons and child labor in the cotton industry, the U.S. State Department said. However, serious human rights abuses continued and torture remained systemic in law enforcement. Human rights activists and journalists who criticized the government were subject to harassment, arbitrary arrest, politically motivated prosecution and torture.
A number of governments in the region continued to harass individual journalists and news outlets, and several countries continued to restrict free access to information via the Internet. As in years past, journalists working in Turkmenistan were harassed by their government, arrested, detained in psychological clinics and subject to violence.
Some governments in the region levied heavy criminal libel penalties against journalists, and in some cases journalists left their countries over fear for their own safety. A government-controlled Internet provider in Kazakhstan intermittently blocked specific news as well as opposition-focused Web sites. In October 2008, Kyrgyzstan removed Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe from the air, reducing public access to this major outside information source.
Freedom of religion came under attack in the region with the parliaments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan introducing laws that would increase restrictions on religious freedom, disproportionately affecting religious minorities. These actions took place in the context of increased harassment of minority religious groups by the governments of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, and continued harassment by the government of Uzbekistan.
Serious issues remain in Central Asian labor rights. Widespread child labor continues in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in cotton and other sectors, while Uzbekistan continued to compel many schoolchildren to work in the cotton harvest. Although the U.S. report states that Kazakhstan is making strides to eliminate child labor, the practice still occurs.
For additional information, see the “Introduction” to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
The full text of the country reports (in English) is available on the State Department Web site.
