Statement by human rights NGOs to OSCE Review Conference on challenges faced by human rights defenders in Central Asia

30 September 2010. The International Partnership for Human Rights (Brussels), the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (Sofia), Civil Rights Defenders (Stockholm), the Moscow Helsinki Group (Moscow), the Netherlands Helsinki Committee (The Hague), the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (Oslo) and the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Warsaw) have joined together in making a statement to the OSCE Review Conference that will take place in Warsaw on 30 September – 8 October 2010. With this statement, the participating organizations wish to highlight challenges faced by human rights defenders in Central Asia, express their solidarity with their colleagues in this region and call on the OSCE states to deal with the protection of human rights defenders as a priority issue at the OSCE Summit scheduled to be held in Astana in December 2010.