Europe & Central Asia - Audio Commentaries

Azerbaijan

Giorgi Gogia, Human Rights Watch Researcher, hrwpress@hrw.org — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:00:00 -0500

The government continues to use defamation and other criminal charges to intimidate independent and opposition journalists, some of whom have also been assaulted by unknown men. Media freedoms rapidly deteriorated in 2007, with at least ten journalists imprisoned. High-profile government officials, businessmen, and opposition politicians remain in custody, and politically-motivated arrests and trials, torture in police custody, and conditions of detention remain unresolved problems. Less than a year ahead of major presidential elections in Azerbaijan, the ground is set for an unfair presidential campaign. Read more [+]

Georgia

Giorgi Gogia, Human Rights Watch Researcher, hrwpress@hrw.org — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:00:00 -0500

After several days of large-scale peaceful opposition demonstrations in November, the Georgian government initiated a violent crackdown on protesters, causing a serious human rights crisis. This crisis occurred in the context of an emerging but dominant view among the governing political elite and its supporters that short-term, supposedly minor sacrifices in human rights are justifiable to build a stronger state, which can better protect human rights in the long term. This approach, however, is leading Georgia away from international standards and represents a gamble with freedom. Prison conditions remain poor, and fair trial and property rights are restricted. Against international recommendations, in 2007 Georgia lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Read more [+]

Russia

Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch Researcher, hrwpress@hrw.org — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:00:00 -0500

As parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2007 and early 2008 approached, the administration headed by President Vladimir Putin cracked down on civil society and freedom of assembly. Reconstruction in Chechnya did not mask grave human rights abuses including torture, abductions, and unlawful detentions. Read more [+]

Turkmenistan

Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch Researcher, hrwpress@hrw.org — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:00:00 -0500

Turkmenistan remains one of the most repressive countries in the world, despite a change in leadership brought about by the death of president-for-life Saparmurat Niazov in December 2006. The new president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has taken steps to reverse some of the most ruinous social policies of Niazov’s rule and to end the country’s international isolation. But the human rights situation in Turkmenistan remains disastrous, and the government has yet to commit to a reform agenda that guarantees fundamental rights. Read more [+]

Uzbekistan

Andrea Berg, Human Rights Watch Researcher, hrwpress@hrw.org — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:00:00 -0500

The government of Uzbekistan has taken no meaningful action to improve its atrocious human rights record. In 2007 the authorities continued to suppress independent civil society activism and independent religious worship, and to resist investigation of and accountability for the 2005 Andijan massacre. Yet international pressure on the Uzbek government to improve its human rights record saw a steady decline.
Read more [+]