• 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.
  • Russia: Reported Roundup of Tajik Migrants
    Press release
    Nov 15, 2011
    The Russian government should refrain from singling out any ethnic population for expulsion and ensure that any detentions and expulsions of foreigners have a legal basis, Human Rights Watch said today. According to media reports, Russia’s Federal Migration Service has said that it has detained several hundred migrant workers from Tajikistan since late last week and plans to expel many of them.
  • Central Asia: Clinton Should Set Record Straight on Rights
    Press release
    Oct 20, 2011
    United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should make clear to the leaders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan during her upcoming visits that improving their poor human rights records is a key component of their engagement with the US.
  • How Not to Run an Empire
    Commentary
    Apr 9, 2010
    This week's uprising in Kyrgyzstan didn't appear out of nowhere. For the last several years, many of this Central Asian country's people have felt betrayed by a government that came to power promising democracy and reform, but in their eyes delivered repression and nepotism instead.
  • Central Asia: Ban Ki-moon’s Visit Should Promote Human Rights
    Press release
    Mar 30, 2010
    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should promote respect for and better implementation of human rights obligations during his visit to Central Asia.
  • Tajikistan: Don’t Return Asylum Seeker to Kyrgyzstan
    Press release
    Mar 25, 2010
    Tajik authorities should not forcibly return a Kyrgyz human rights defender who is also a registered asylum seeker to Kyrgyzstan. They should immediately grant the man, who is in custody, access to a lawyer and investigate allegations that his detention in Tajikistan was arbitrary and that he has been tortured.
  • Letter to Participants in “Human Rights, Housing, and the State: Cases of Forced Eviction in Tajikistan”
    Letter
    Jul 7, 2008
    Human Rights Watch is pleased to have been given the opportunity to contribute to this roundtable on housing issues. We believe the roundtable is a valuable contribution towards looking for solutions to a serious human rights problem in today’s Tajikistan.
  • EU: Urge Rights Reform in Central Asia
    Press release
    Apr 7, 2008
    The European Union should establish human rights benchmarks for Central Asian governments and make their fulfillment a core objective of its Central Asia Strategy, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.
  • Letter to Foreign Minister Kouchner on the EU Central Asia Strategy
    Letter
    Apr 7, 2008
    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.
  • Organisation of the Islamic Conference: Improve and Strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism
    Letter
    Mar 11, 2008
    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.