GENEVA (4 July 2023) – UN experts* today urged Tajikistan to show genuine commitment to improving the situation of human rights defenders in the country and expressed concern about convictions.
“We would like to remind the Government that criminalising the legitimate peaceful work of human rights defenders is incompatible with Tajikistan’s international human rights obligations. Conflating human rights defenders with extremists and terrorists is a very dangerous practice,” the experts said.
The human rights defenders whose cases UN experts raised with the Government, including Daler Imomali, Abdulloh Ghurbati, Zavqibek Saidamini, Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda, Ulfathonim Mamadshoeva, Manuchekhr Kholiknazarov, Faromuz Irgashov, and Khushom Guliam, were allegedly sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to 29 years between October and December 2022.