Objective
The Commission on Human Rights should adopt a strong resolution condemning human rights violations by the government of Turkmenistan. The resolution should reiterate the requirements in last year’s Commission resolution, including that the Turkmen government implement the recommendations of the report issued by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) last year; and cooperate fully with the United Nations, including by issuing invitations to relevant thematic mechanisms. The resolution should also request the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the country.
Background
The government of Turkmenistan remains one of the most repressive in the world. Saparmurat Niazov is president for life. It tolerates no opposition and crushes critical thinking. Since its independence from the Soviet Union, there has not been a single nationwide election that could be considered free or fair. The OSCE declined to send even a scaled-down mission to monitor the 2000 parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan, so certain was it that they were an empty exercise. Turkmen opposition figures were either driven into exile in the early 1990s or imprisoned. Most were released, but after the awful prison experience and constant surveillance afterward do not dare speak out again. No independent human rights organizations can operate in Turkmenistan. There is no free media: the government subjects all newspaper outlets to pre-publication censorship, has banned most Russian-language media, and has introduced draconian measures to limit access to the Internet.
Little has changed in Turkmenistan’s human rights record since the Commission’s adoption of Resolution 2003/11 at its 59th session. If anything, conditions have worsened, with the government’s imposition of draconian restrictions on civil society. A new law provides for imprisonment and “corrective labor” for civil society advocates who do not register. The government virtually never registers independent non-governmental groups.
Since last year’s session, Human Rights Watch documented new cases of forced internal exile against relatives of opposition members.
Government bans remain on the opera, ballet, circus, the philharmonic orchestra, and non-Turkmen cultural associations. The Academy of Sciences remains closed. Russian orthodoxy and government-approved Sunni Islam are the only religions that may operate houses of worship. Followers of other faiths have faced criminal prosecution, police beatings, deportation, and in some cases demolition of their houses of worship.
The continued fallout from the November 25 attack on President Niazov. Large numbers of people continue to suffer due to the government’s response to the November 25, 2002 attack on President Niazov. At least 100 people were arrested, and fifty-seven convicted in relation to the attack. The trials were closed, and defendants were held incommunicado and not granted counsel of their choice. In some cases defense counsel had little or no notice prior to the beginning of court hearings. In the past year credible reports emerged of police and security agents’ ill treatment and torture of suspects allegedly involved. Methods included suffocation with plastic bags, beatings with batons, food and sleep deprivation, and injection of unknown narcotics.
Among those arrested are relatives of the exiled political opposition. Reliable sources report that some have suffered torture and ill-treatment in custody. Relatives who have not been arrested have been threatened with arrest and subjected to relentless harassment and surveillance. There is little doubt that the intent is to pressure exiles to return, and to compel those in custody to confess or give testimony.
Failure to cooperate with the United Nations. To date, the Turkmen government has not cooperated with the U.N. human rights system, although it has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and other major human rights treaties. It has not filed a single report to U.N. treaty bodies. It has failed to comply with any of the requests made by the Commission in Resolution 2003/11, or by the General Assembly in Resolution 58/194.
It is crucial that the Commission maintain the momentum from last year by adopting a new resolution on Turkmenistan, and make clear that it expects concrete action on the calls it makes. The Turkmen government takes great pride in its U.N. membership. The U.N. must make clear that failure to cooperate is unacceptable.
Recommendations
The Commission on Human Rights should reiterate the calls made in last year’s resolution, and in particular:
- Express grave concern about serious abuses of human rights in Turkmenistan, and press the Turkmen government to undertake systemic reforms to fully comply with its international human rights obligations.
- Request international monitoring of all trials in order to promote transparency.
- Call on the Turkmen authorities to invite the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the thematic mechanisms to visit Turkmenistan. The High Commissioner should visit Turkmenistan and report on findings to the 61st session of the Commission. Should the Turkmen government fail to issue an invitation, the High Commissioner should be asked to report to the Commission using information gathered by a UNDP mission and other sources.
