Interview with OSCE on human rights

Since gaining independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tajikistan, an impoverished nation of almost 7 million, has faced innumerable challenges on its way to peace and stability. Tajikistan's new role in the global campaign against terrorism served to attract greater international attention and created space for some important human rights reforms. To coincide with Human Rights Day on Wednesday, Riccardo Lepri, Human Dimension Officer for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, shared with IRIN his insight into the state of human rights in the country. QUESTION: How would you describe the current state of human rights in Tajikistan? ANSWER: I would say that reforms have been started and there is to be a positive political trend in that respect. However, implementation is not yet following; this is partially due to the very short time since when reforms were initiated, and to also the fact that many of them are still at drafting (e.g. the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Code, Laws on religion, elections and media) or initial (e.g. Prison Reform) stages. Moreover, capacity from the side of governmental agencies is not always adequate. Q: Would you say the situation is improving? A: Apart from the reforms, recently there have been some more concrete signs of improvement: the availability to tackle the issue of torture; we have just organised a conference on this. The fact that for the first time the government suspended the execution of two death sentences while the UN HRC [Human Rights Commission] was considering related appeals, and in one already changed the sentence. There is a strong potential for improvement, but very often government authorities, particularly mid- and low ranks and local authorities, seem unprepared or reluctant to change. I would quote as an example a local official saying to an OSCE officer "the situation is improved here lately, it is almost like during the Soviet Union". Q: What in your view are the main human rights issues impacting the country? A: In general, the potential for abuses exists on the greatest majority of human rights issues, and is rarely balanced by strong institutional defences, while "non-institutional" defences, like community connections, can at times play an important role. Specific issues that within this framework are in my opinion most acute would be: torture and ill-treatment, particularly in the investigation and pre-trial phases, trial practices that do not correspond to international standards. For example, the wide use of evidence obtained on the basis of confessions rather than substantial proofs. There is also a tendency to a sort of "presumption of guilt" rather than of innocence, coupled with lack of alternative sentencing and/or ways of rehabilitation of prisoners, regardless of the crime. Q: What role is the OSCE playing in addressing some of these? A: In general, our role should be that of combining activities with monitoring on the target issues, and exercising political pressure whenever appropriate to "direct" reform initiatives, as well as implementation, to the fulfilment of international human rights engagements of Tajikistan. We are planning activities on awareness-raising and capacity building on human rights issues, mainly death penalty and torture, prison reform, rights of labour migrants, legal and judicial reform, rights of national minorities and education on human rights. The activities will consist mainly of training, educational initiatives, information, and monitoring - all across the country. More specifically, activities on death penalty and torture will consist of seminars, roundtables and conferences, training, monitoring, research and information. They will be developed in connection with a death-penalty monitoring project currently under consideration by ODIHR, and a national conference on torture organised on 4-5 December 2003. We will aim at starting a process of strengthening public monitoring on these issues. Regarding prison reforms, activities will focus on training on relevant human rights and monitoring, targeting government, NGOs and media. The expected results are adapting foreign experience to national legislation and practices, raise relevant knowledge and capacities of the target groups, and enhance interrelation between them. Q: Are there any particular groups who are more vulnerable to human rights abuses in Tajikistan than others? A: That would be obviously more acute for women, particularly divorced or widowed, and children, particularly homeless or belonging to the aforementioned group. Private enterprises can be exposed to bribing. Labour migrants - some 400,000 a year - could be exposed to violations both in the country of destination and when returning back - the latter in the form of bribing. Q: There have been reports that the usage of torture is still problematic. How true is that? A: It is difficult to determine the extent of the use of torture, but I believe that it is problematic. There is a strong perception within the society in this respect. Q: Corruption remains a serious problem in the country. How does that impact on the state of human rights in the country? A: You have to imagine it as a chain reaction: the legal and institutional gaps give way to abuses, abuses are committed in the majority of the cases in order to obtain bribes. Rights are violated twice this way, while also the simple approaching an institution by an individual, whatever the reason, could involve bribing. Basically, rights happen to be bought and sold rather than guaranteed. Note, however, that salaries are so ridiculously low even in comparison with the minimal consumer basket in Tajikistan itself - and this is indeed another source of corruption. Q: In comparison to other Central Asian countries, how does Tajikistan compare? A: Difficult to say. In Tajikistan, there are more political parties, more nongovernmental media, but the issues mentioned above - corruption, ill-treatment, "unfair" trials - either reach the same extent and, if not, work along the same lines. Q: How conscious is the government on the issue of human rights, and what efforts is it making to improve the situation? A: The government is conscious. As regards the efforts, they mostly are still in the phase of drafting new legislation and programmes. There may be, however, resistance to change, particularly at the mid-level and locally; but this is speculation rather than fact. Q: What about legislation? A: Legal measures are being or about to be put in place. Chiefly a reform of the Criminal Code, some 300 amendments, including a reduction in the scope of application of the death penalty from 15 to five articles, soon to be approved; ongoing drafting of laws on the police and the reform of the penitentiary system that started last year. It will be extremely interesting to see what will happen with the issue of torture. In my opinion, that would be a chief "test" of the willingness to undertake reforms.