There is no sign that these practices will cease, despite promises of the opposite from the authoritarian states that are looking at ways to make use of increasing international interest in their natural resources and strategic location.

Norway and other democratic countries must use the opportunity of the Universal Periodic Review to make the authorities follow up on their assurances, concludes Engesland.

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will be heard in the second round of the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review in April/May 2013. The UN Human Rights Council should not accept another four years of empty promises. NHC warns the UN Human Rights Council of empty promises in Turkmenistan’s and Uzbekistan’s Universal Periodic Review.

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has today submitted alternative reports on both countries.

Torture still widespread in Uzbekistan

Over the past few years, Uzbekistan has become an increasingly important strategic partner for the United States and others engaged in Afghanistan, especially with a view to a future withdrawal of troops from the country, which shares a border with Uzbekistan. While the international community has been critical of Uzbekistan’s human rights record in the time since the Andijan massacre in May 2005, the tone has grown milder in recent months. At the same time, no significant improvement in Uzbekistan’s human rights record has been noted by any national or international human rights organisation.

The use of torture remains widespread in Uzbekistan. Among the methods used during interrogations are beatings, electric shocks and simulated asphyxiation. In 2011, a video interview with alleged former security service agent Aleksandr Rakhamanov was published, where he describes using plastic bags over prisoners’ heads to suffocate them, forcing them to inhale poisonous smoke from burning rubber, continued and repeated beatings, rapes and sleep deprivation. These descriptions coincide with the testimonies of numerous victims of torture from Uzbekistan who have survived to tell their stories.

While Uzbekistani journalists practice self-censorship for fear of retribution, restrictive laws and practice also mean that anyone raising critical questions in the media risks persecution and imprisonment. The official media are completely state-controlled, but some journalists publish materials on the internet, often under pseudonyms. The local organisation Prisoners of Conscience has documented numerous such cases where journalists have been imprisoned for raising issues of corruption and human rights violations, or for materials critical of the country’s leadership. The same is true of human rights defenders, such as Solijon Abdurakhmanov, Azam Formonov, Nosim Isakov, Gaibullo Jalilov, Alisher Karamatov, Jamshid Karimov, Norboi Kholjigitov, Rasul Khudainasarov, Ganihon Mamatkhanov, Habibulla Okpulatov, Yuldash Rasulov, Dilmurod Saidov, and Akzam Turgunov, all of whom are serving long prison sentences for carrying out their highly important work.

You can read the submission on Uzbekistan here.

Turkmenistan: no improvement in the last six years

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee considers that Turkmenistan has failed to follow up on its stated intentions to cooperate with international organisations and to fulfil international obligations since its previous Universal Periodic Review. EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) has been kept on hold for the last six years, and specific benchmarks have been set as a precondition for any further negotiations with the country. At the same time, there is an increasing interest in booming construction in the closed country, as well as its vast natural resources, and there are on-going discussions in the European Parliament to reopen discussions on the PCA. 

Long prison sentences after closed trials are the rule rather than the exception in Turkmenistan, and the practice of collective punishment is widespread. A large number of criminal cases are retaliation for political activity. The long list includes cases against Sapardurdy Khadjiev and Annakurban Annaklychev, Gulgeldy Annaniyazov, who have been kept in incommunicado detention since 2006 and 2008 respectively. More recent short-term arrests include activist Bisengul Begdesenov, RFE/RL correspondent Dovlet Yazkuliev and Editor Jumageldi Mulkiev.

Other activists and journalists are subject to violence, threats and harassment. Activist Natalya Shabunts found a severed sheep’s head on her door step after having criticised the conduct of presidential elections in the country.

There is a widespread practice of discrimination of people with dual citizenship of Russia and Turkmenistan. The government had announced that people who obtained their Russian citizenship before the entry into force of Turkmenistan’s new Constitution that prohibits dual citizenship would be able to maintain the right to have both citizenships. However, in practice, these people are not able to get the new biometric Turkmen passport, and they are not able to find a job either in the state services, or in any state institution, enterprise or organisation. Government policies seem aimed at ousting these people from the country through these unprecedented discriminatory practices. The main objective seems to be to restrict freedom of movement and ensure that no one is able to leave the country without permission of the government.

On the political level, Turkmenistan is controlled by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his circle. No election has ever been free or transparent in Turkmenistan, and the OSCE/ODIHR Needs Assessment Mission did not see that even a limited election observation mission would add any value to the Presidential elections in February 2012. Engaging in politics on an independent platform is impossible in practice, even if the President now has established a second government-supportive party, the Agrarian Party.

You can read the submission on Turkmenistan here.

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