• The Soviet Fall and the Arab Spring
    Commentary
    Jan 10, 2012
    Twenty years ago, in July 1991, I was poised to start a job researching human rights violations in the Soviet Union. A month later, the failed coup to unseat Communist Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev precipitated rapid political changes that would lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25. Watching these events, my family told me I would no longer have a job. Like many others, they assumed that the end of communism would usher in a new era of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in the Soviet Union’s successor states. I started my new job as planned and it only took five minutes to see that those assumptions were wrong.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Verdict Fails Justice
    Press release
    Dec 20, 2011
    The Kyrgyz Supreme Court has failed to deliver justice by upholding a guilty verdict in a murder case tied to the 2010 ethnic violence that was marred by torture, violence, and threats.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Priorities for a New President
    Press release
    Oct 27, 2011
    Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election offers a crucial opportunity for a new leader to curb human rights violations that have plagued the country since the June 2010 ethnic violence.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Violence in Courtroom
    Press release
    Sep 21, 2011
    The Kyrgyz authorities should immediately condemn courtroom attacks on lawyers and their ethnic Uzbek defendants on trial in connection with the country’s 2010 ethnic violence.
  • Kyrgyzstan: A Death Follows Police Torture
    Press release
    Aug 11, 2011
    An ethnic Uzbek detained and allegedly tortured by police in southern Kyrgyzstan died on August 9, 2011, two days after he was released from police custody.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Online News Agencies Denied Accreditation
    Press release
    Aug 4, 2011
    Kyrgyzstan’s Central Election Commission should grant accreditation to online news agencies so they can cover the country’s October 30, 2011 presidential campaigning and election.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Lawyer Attacked as Police Stand By
    Press release
    Aug 3, 2011
    The Kyrgyz authorities should immediately open a criminal investigation into a series of violent assaults on a lawyer defending an ethnic Uzbek on trial in relation to the 2010 ethnic violence.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Don’t Stifle Dissent
    Press release
    Jun 21, 2011
    Two resolutions recently adopted by the Kyrgyz parliament could undermine freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Letter to the Kyrgyz Parliament regarding Recent Resolutions
    Letter
    Jun 21, 2011
    I am writing to express our concern about two recent resolutions passed by the Kyrgyz parliament and to draw your attention to the negative effects that the resolutions could have on freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan.
  • Kyrgyzstan: Post-Violence Justice Deeply Flawed
    Press release
    Jun 8, 2011
    Investigations and trials following inter-ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 have been fundamentally flawed and undermine efforts to provide justice.