Activists demanded the UN 2023 Water Conference participants to be considerate of the Human Rights situation in Tajikistan

A group of civic activists appealed to UN representatives not to ignore the human rights situation in Tajikistan at the water conference in New York. Pamir Daily News received a copy of the letter addresed to conference participants on March 20. The authors did not mention their names for fear of persecution of their relatives in Tajikistan.

We enclose the full text of the appeal hereby:

Please speak out against the severe human rights violations in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan!

A mountain stream in Rushan district (GBAO, Tajikistan), a few kilometers from the town of Vamar where security forces killed more than 35  residents on 18-19 May 2022.

Dear Participants of the 2023 Water Conference!

We would like to draw your kind attention to the ongoing systematic and comprehensive human rights violations in Tajikistan, whose representative is presiding over the 2023 UN Water Conference in New York from 22 to 24 March 2023. 

The authorities of Tajikistan are brutally targeting its own population, especially in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). Please help to ensure that their human rights violations become public and that they cannot abuse the UN Water Conference for propaganda purposes.

Your voice can truly make a difference!

When the Dushanbe Water Conference  was held in the capital of Tajikistan in June 2022, civil society activists and global citizens around the world called for boycotting Tajikistan as host country of the conference in an online petition. We understood that a boycott was not a realistic option but we did our best to draw the attention of the guests to the bleak human rights situation in the country. 

At the time of the Dushanbe Water Conference, the authorities had just taken the repression to an unprecedented level in the framework of their crackdown on civil society in Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). Civil rights activists had been imprisoned, protesters had been shot down, ordinary residents had been arbitrarily detained, tortured and put to death, internet communication and access to information had been blocked. The Pamiris who were tragically affected by the crackdown are an indigenous minority. Living in the Pamir mountains, they are guardians of much of the water resources of Central Asia.

Shortly after the Dushanbe Water Conference, the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, personally took responsibility for the crackdown in GBAO. In spite of concerns expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament and many others, the human rights situation has further deteriorated. The crackdown in GBAO spiraled out of control due to the impunity of security forces. After systematically eliminating the political, economic and cultural elites of the indigenous population, they targeted civil society in general, religious practice and use of indigenous languages.

Civicus Monitor has recently downgraded Tajikistan from “repressed” to “closed” due to the forceful suppression of protests in GBAO and the widening crackdown on dissenting voices in general. Among others, the Minority Rights Group and Human Rights Watch have expressed their high level of concern. For detailed information about what has happened in GBAO since mid-May 2022, please see the Roof-top Info summary.

We kindly request you to: 

• Address the ongoing recent severe human rights violations in Tajikistan  in your speeches and  presentations during the conference. 
• Address the ongoing human rights violations in bilateral discussions with representatives of the Government of Tajikistan and confront them with the statements of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament and international human rights organizations.
• Talk to officials, civil society and media in New York and at home about the severe human rights violations in Tajikistan.

We are convinced that the dire human rights situation must not be brushed aside during the 2023 Water Conference which Tajikistan’s representative is presiding over.

Please use any opportunity to help the people in Tajikistan!

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information under: dushanbe.waterconference@protonmail.com. 

We wish you a fruitful and successful conference.

Your sincerely,

Civil society activists outside of Tajikistan who cannot disclose their names due to pressure by the authorities on their families and friends in Tajikistan