I am writing to urge your government to ensure that asylum seekers and refugees in Kyrgyzstan fully enjoy the protections to which they are entitled under international and Kyrgyz refugee law. Human Rights Watch also urges you to ensure that the government investigates the recent disappearance from Kyrgyzstan of an Uzbek asylum seeker and to actively inquire after and monitor the situation of individuals returned or extradited to Uzbekistan, returns which were in violation of international law.

I am writing to express our concerns about a noticeable downgrading of women's rights by the Kyrgyz authorities and ask you to make domestic violence and the abduction of women for forced marriage (bride-kidnapping) a priority policy concern of your government.

I am writing to express profound concern about the draft amendments to the 2002 Law on the Right of Citizens to Hold Peaceful Assemblies, adopted by the parliament on June 13, 2008 and currently pending your signature. The amended law as drafted unreasonably restricts freedom of assembly enshrined in the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic and in international law.

We are writing in advance of your upcoming trip to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which we believe provides a unique opportunity to discuss the state of human rights in both countries and press for concrete improvements. We hope you will make full use of the opportunity of your trip to make clear to the governments of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan that enforcing universal human rights principles is a core component of OSCE policy in the region.

In recent months there have been a few positive human rights developments in the region, including notably in Uzbekistan the release from prison of a half-dozen wrongfully detained human rights defenders and an agreement granting ICRC access to prisons. While these developments are to be welcomed, they should not eclipse the overall abysmal state of human rights in the country, and indeed in the region as a whole.

Human Rights Watch writes to urge Dr. Ihsanoglu to use his position as Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to support measures at the upcoming Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-14 that would improve and strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism. In particular, the OIC should consider two amendments to the Convention to narrow its overbroad definition of terrorism and make absolutely clear that there is no sanction in Islam for deliberately attacking civilians, whatever the circumstances or justifications.

We are writing to express our profound concern about an ordinance on public gatherings adopted by the Bishkek City Council that restricts public gatherings in the capital.We are concerned that the ordinance undermines the right to freedom of assembly enshrined in the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic and in international law.

We are writing to you today to express our deep concern about the prosecution in Jalalabat of prominent human rights defenders from the NGO Spravedlivost: Valentina Gritzenko, Abdumalik Sharipov and Makhamajan Abdujaparov, as well as of Nargiz Turdieva, a woman who reported that she had been tortured.