Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Uzbekistan ratifies ILO treaty on assembly

OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an apparent bid to improve its international business image, Uzbekistan ratified a UN convention that protects workers’ freedom of association and businesses’ rights to form lobby groups.

Acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed into law Convention no. 87 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a UN agency, which had originally been drawn up in 1948.

It is the 154th country, and the last in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, to ratify the Convention. Notably, the US, China and India are among the countries which have not ratified the Convention.

And for Uzbekistan this is something of a landmark. It has been the focus of criticism from international human rights activists, who denounced repression of the opposition and the lack of independent platforms for alternative dialogues.

Many Western clothing companies boycott Uzbek cotton because of its links to forced labour.

Foreign companies have also complained about the difficulties of operating in Uzbekistan, considered one of the most repressive countries in the world, and the ratification of the ILO convention may improve their lobbying potential.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Witness recants statement in Kyrgyz court

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — One of the key witnesses in the trial against Kyrgyz human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov recanted her testimony against her former colleague saying that she had been threatened by the police. Under pressure from the UN and the US, in July Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a re-trial of Askarov’s case. He was given a life sentence in September 2010 after being accused of inciting ethnic hatred in a revolution that toppled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier that year. Human rights lobby groups say the accusation were fabricated.

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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kyrgyzstan increases film control

OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz government has increased its ability to ban films considered pornographic or too violent, media reported. Human rights group have said they are worried that the new laws could be used for political reasons but family groups have welcomed the tighter control that the state will have over film releases in cinemas and on television.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

EITI tells Azerbaijan that civil society must be improved

ALMATY, OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global lobby group which effectively acts as an ethical watchdog for countries with economies that rely heavily on mining, oil and gas, said it will expel Azerbaijan from the organisation if it fails to reform its NGO laws within four months.

The Oslo-based EITI is influential because Western investment is often linked to compliance with its various rules. If Azerbaijan was kicked out of the group, it would threaten vital foreign investment deals.

Last year, the EITI downgraded Azerbaijan’s membership because of what it said was a crackdown on civil society.

At a meeting in Kazakhstan, the EITI said that Azerbaijan had improved some aspects of its economy and society, in line with recommendations drawn up last year during a so-called Validation process, but that more needed to be done to retain its membership.

“Azerbaijan has made important progress in opening up the oil sector and I am encouraged to hear about the recent plans for government reforms towards more transparency,” Fredrik Reinfeldt, chair of the EITI, said in a statement.

“I hope that the government will continue its recent efforts to ensure that civil society can play its proper role in this process, otherwise this progress risks being overshadowed.”

If Azerbaijan fails to keep its EITI membership, investment for its Southern Gas Corridor, a pipeline network that will pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, will be at risk.

Specifically, in September the EBRD said it would reconsider a $1.5b loan for the TANAP pipeline, part of the Southern Gas Corridor that Azerbaijan is building to pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, if Azerbaijan was kicked out of the EITI.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Azerbaijan jails for 10 years activist who graffitied Heydar Aliyev statue

OCT. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced a 22-year- old activist to 10 years in jail after he sprayed anti-government slogans on a statue of former president, Heydar Aliyev.

Giyas Ibrahimov was arrested with fellow activist Bayram Mammadov in May 2016, hours after a photo of the graffiti was posted on Facebook. Both were later charged with drug possession although the men said that these were bogus and were politically motivated.

Opposition groups have said that the authorities wanted a particularly heavy sentence against Ibrahimov because of the sensitivity of defacing a state of Heydar Aliye, father of current president Ilham Aliyev.

Before he was led away at the end of his trial, Ibrahimov was defiant “We didn’t violate any law, we violated the rules of a corrupt system,” he said.

Mr Mammadov, who was arrested with Ibrahimov, is still waiting for his case to be heard.

Erkin Gadirli, academic and member of the opposition REAL movement told The Conway Bulletin that President Aliyev would have taken the defacing of the statue personally.

“The punishment was so severe in order to teach a lesson to other activists,” he said.

The court’s verdict was also rare because the judge handed out a longer jail sentence than the prosecution had asked for. The prosecutor had asked for nine years but Ibrahimov was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Just hours after the verdict was passed, slogans of solidarity and support for the jailed activist started appearing on Baku’s streets. Importantly for the authorities, though, none of the many symbols and statues of Heydar Aliyev were defaced.

Others, though, thought the sentence was justified.

“I am against random street graffiti. As far as I know Giyas has been arrested on a drug charge,” Seda Huseyn wrote on a blog. “Anyway, what’s the point of slogan-scribbling? It works for the interests of human rights defenders. They use Giyas for their filthy ambitions like receiving grants from abroad.”

Europe and the US have criticised Azerbaijan during the past few years over its treatment of opposition activists. It’s likely that Ibrahimov’s case will generate more criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Kazakh police block rallies for land activists

ALMATY, OCT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan blocked demonstrations in support of two imprisoned organisers of protests earlier this year against proposed changes to the country’s land code.

The two land activists, Maks Bokayev and Talgat Ayan, have been on trial in Atyrau since Oct. 12 accused of trying to organise a coup, in one of the most highly-charged and politically sensitive trials this year. The demonstrations that they are accused of organising in March attracted wide popularity and spread across Kazakhstan, unnerving the government.

Apparently worried that the high- profile nature of the trial and the latent support for the defendants might trigger another round of mass protests, the authorities have been rounding up people gathering in support of Mr Bokayev and Mr Ayan.

Local media has reported that several people have been detained trying to attend these rallies and one activist said that he was beaten up by unknown men shortly after attending a rally in Atyrau.

For supporters of Mr Bokayev and Mr Ayan, the trial is a sham.

Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, a human rights activist, told The Conway Bulletin that she thought it was a purely political process.

“The judge pretends that she is neutral and listens carefully to both sides but this is a regular political trial in an authoritarian country, nothing new,” she said.

The authorities, though, have said the two men are coup plotters who had teamed up with Tokhtar Tuleshov, a millionaire brewery owner from Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan. Mr Tuleshov has been detained since January and is also charged with a coup attempt.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Kazakhstan looks to ban Salafism

ALMATY, OCT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan appeared to signal that it would ban Salafism, a form of Islam, after its new minister for religious affairs, Nurlan Yermekbayev, described it as “unacceptable”.

Mr Yermekbayev’s comments, at his first press conference as minister for religious freedom, will strengthen analysts’ views that the ministry, created last month, was designed to clamp down on religious freedom.

“We consider that for Kazakhstan, Salafism is an unacceptable and destructive religious movement. In

general, Kazakhstan’s society has a negative attitude to this alien understanding of faith, leading to radicalism,” the official Astana Times newspaper quoted him as saying.

“Our future work will focus on preventing the spread of literature and the work of the websites promoting the ideology of Salafism.”

Salafism is an ultra-conservative form of Islam that has its roots in Egypt. It has been blamed for the spread of radical Islam.

Previously, Wahhabism, has been blamed for encouraging a series of terrorist attacks in Kazakhstan and banned by the government.

But Kazakh officials have now blamed a series of gun attacks in Aktobe, in the west of the country, in June on a group of Salafists.

Kazakhstan, like its neighbours, has been clamping down on pious Muslims, increasingly worried that they are destabilising the country and acting as a possible fifth column.

Human rights groups have described the clamp-downs as attacks on human rights and free speech.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakhstan retiriertes Hijab ban

OCT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan said that it had reiterated a ban on hijabs at school despite a number of complaints from parents since the ban was introduced in January. Kazakhstan is officially a secular states although the vast majority of people are Muslim. Headscarves have also become a more common sight on the streets of Kazakh cities over the past few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh women’s rights leaders ambivalent on Dariga as future president

ALMATY, OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, may have been promoted to the Senate in a reshuffle last month, and is now being touted as a presidential successor, but many women appear ambivalent on supporting her candidacy.

The issue of who will succeed president Nursultan Nazarbayev, 76, as next president dominates Kazakh politics but Ms Nazarbayeva, 53, is a divisive figure and she fails to generate mass support among what should be her natural support base — women — as interviews with women’s rights advocates suggested.

Dina Smailova, who heads a group fighting domestic and sexual violence called ‘Don’t be silent’, said that while Ms Nazarbayeva had been supportive of their work, she may not be the right person to lead the country.

“I can view her candidacy as a woman who is educated, a modern woman but why not consider another candidate?” she said.

Women’s rights and domestic abuse moved into the mainstream in Kazakhstan this year after a well- known female TV presenter was badly beaten up by her husband at a petrol station outside Almaty.

According to the UN, 500 women are killed each year in Kazakhstan by their partners.

Aida Alzhanova, chair of Adam Damu charity and a former UN expert for women’s equality said Ms Nazarbayeva had not done enough to promote women’s rights.

“I didn’t know Dariga was promoting women’s rights,” she said. “Here gender inequality in politics and business is gradually moving into the domestic sphere.”

She did say, though, that she would consider supporting Ms Nazarbayeva.

“If she wins in a fair election and if she has a clear gender policy that fits with international norms and standards, then I will vote for her,” she said.

The third women’s rights leader interviewed by The Conway Bulletin said that she would support Dariga Nazarbayeva if she wanted to become president.

“I want to believe that if a woman becomes president there will be pos- itive changes in the country,” said Marianna Gurina, president of the Ulagatty Zhanuya charity, which pro- motes family values and women’s rights.

“Yes, I support her candidacy because I think she, as a woman understands women.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Radicals attack transgender in Georgia

OCT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human rights groups called for the Georgian government to do more to fight hate crimes after a transgender woman was badly stabbed in an apparent attempted murder. Georgia has seen a rise in attacks and marches by rightwing radicals over the past few years. Last month a group of nationalists marched through a street in the old town of Tbilisi taunting foreigners.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)